Rodrigo Duterte, former Philippines president, arrested on ICC warrant over drug killings
Manila, Philippines Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested Tuesday at the Manila International Airport in an International Criminal Court order involving cases of crimes against him, the Philippines government said.
Duterte was arrested after arriving from Hong Kong and police detained him under an ICC order that has been investigating the international criminal law Mass killings under the deadly crackdown on illegal drugs by former presidentPresident Ferdinand Marcos’s office said in a statement.
“After the prosecutor arrived, he arrested the former president for the International Criminal Court notice to arrest the criminal offender,” the government said. “He is now detained by authorities.”
The surprise arrest sparked a commotion at the airport when lawyers and Duterte aides protested loudly, who, together with doctors and attorneys, were stopped from approaching him after being detained by police. “It violates his constitutional rights,” Senator Bong Go, a close ally of Duterte Ally, told reporters.
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Duterte’s former lawyer and spokesman Salvador Panelo asserted in a statement that the warrant came from “false sources” because the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction in the Philippines, Reuters News Agency reported. The International Criminal Court said that crimes that withdraw crimes committed before the country have jurisdiction over there.
The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant to Philippine officials, whose copy was seen by the Associated Press, said: “There are reasonable reasons to believe that the “attack on victims” is both broad and systematic: The attack that took place for several years and that thousands of people appear to have been killed.”
Duterte’s arrest was “to ensure he appeared in court” according to a March 7 arrest warrant, adding that the former president is expected to ignore the court’s subpoena.
It said that although Duterte is no longer president, he “seems to continue to play a considerable amount of power.”
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It said: “Notes the risks of intervention in the investigation and the safety of witnesses and victims, it is necessary to satisfy Mr. Duterte’s arrest.”
France-Presse reported that a photo posted by his party said he was being held at the Villamore Air Force Base next to the Manila airport.
The government said Duterte was in good health.
Duterte’s relatives’ reaction to drug killing victims
Duterte’s arrest and downfall shocked the victims’ families with his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs and drove them to tears.
“It’s a great, long-awaited day,” Randy Delos Santos, a teenager who was killed in an anti-drug operation in Manila Metropolis in August 2017, told the Associated Press.
“Now, we think justice is rolling. We hope that senior police officers and hundreds of police officers involved in the illegal killing should also be detained and punished,” Delos Santos said.
Three police officers who killed his nephew Kian Delos Santos were convicted of high-profile murder in 2018, prompting Duterte to temporarily suspend his brutal anti-drug crackdown at the time.
The conviction has so far been targeted at least one of the law enforcement officers involved in the anti-drug campaign, reflecting concerns among families of victims suspected of alleged extrajudicial killings that they will not receive justice in the Philippines, which led to their decision to seek help from the ICC.
Duterte’s long history of drug killing
The ICC began investigating Duterte’s killing under Duterte on November 1, 2011, when he was still the mayor of the southern city of Davao, and by March 16, 2019, a possible crime against humanity. In 2019, Duterte withdrew from Roman regulations Human rights activists say aimed at evading accountability.
The Duterte administration suspended global court investigations in late 2021, noting that Philippine authorities are already investigating the same allegations, believing that the International Criminal Court (ICC) – the Last Holiday Court – has no jurisdiction.
The ICC’s appeal judge ruled in 2023 that the investigation could be restored and rejected objections from the Duterte administration. The ICC is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, and the ICC can step in when states are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. But the Marcos government said it would cooperate if the International Criminal Court requires international police to pass the so-called red notice, a request from law enforcement agencies around the world to locate and temporarily arrest the suspect.
