By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Chloe Mari A. Hufana and Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporters
PHILIPPINE police arrested firebrand former President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Tuesday on the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a serious step on the planet body’s investigation into hundreds of killings in a bloody “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.
Mr. Duterte, the maverick former mayor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was served an arrest warrant on arrival from Hong Kong at Manila’s foremost airport and was now in custody, the office of his successor Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said in a press release.
The International Criminal Police Organization’s (Interpol) office within the Philippines got a replica of the ICC arrest warrant early Tuesday, and native police enforced it, the presidential palace said.
The war on drugs was Mr. Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial, crime-busting former prosecutor to power in 2016, and he soon delivered on guarantees made during vitriolic speeches to kill hundreds of drug dealers and users.
If transferred to the Hague, he could grow to be Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial on the ICC.
The ICC has been investigating the ex-President for alleged crimes against humanity that he allegedly committed when he was Davao City mayor and throughout the first three years of his government, when the Philippines was still a celebration to the international tribunal.
Mr. Duterte, 79, unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s founding treaty in 2019 when it began looking into allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings.
Mr. Duterte has insisted he told police to kill only in self-defense and has repeatedly defended the crackdown, saying he was willing to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of illegal drugs.
In a video posted on Instagram by daughter Veronica Duterte from Manila’s Villamor Air Base, where he was placed in custody, the previous leader questioned the rationale for his arrest.
“What’s the law and what’s the crime that I committed?” he said within the video. It was unclear who he was talking to. “I used to be brought here not of my very own volition, it’s any individual else’s. You may have to reply now for the deprivation of liberty.”
In a 15-page warrant issued by the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I on March 7, Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc said not less than 19 drug suspects were killed by members of the Davao Death Squad around Davao City when Mr. Duterte was still the mayor.
The chamber also alleged that not less than 24 drug suspects were killed by or under the supervision of members of Philippine law enforcers, sometimes with the assistance of people that weren’t a part of the police, in various places across the Philippines.
“It’s an illegal arrest,” Salvador S. Panelo, Mr. Duterte’s legal counsel, said in a press release. “The Philippine National Police didn’t allow one among his lawyers to satisfy him on the airport to query the legal basis for President Duterte’s arrest.”
SUPREME COURT CASE
Meanwhile, Davao-based lawyer Israelito P. Torreon asked the Supreme Court on behalf of Mr. Duterte and Senator Ronald M. Dela Rosa — the national police chief who enforced the drug war —to stop the ICC trial, which he said doesn’t have jurisdiction within the Philippines.
In a 94-page petition, he also sought the discharge of Mr. Duterte, arguing that his detention was illegal.
The High Court had raffled off the case, it said in a press release, without saying which division of the court would handle the lawsuit.
Human Rights Watch urged the Philippine government to right away hand over Mr. Duterte to the ICC following his arrest on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. “The Marcos government should swiftly give up him to the ICC,” it said in a press release.
Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio in a press release said the federal government’s give up of his father to foreign powers is a “blatant affront to our sovereignty and an insult to each Filipino who believes in our nation’s independence.”
She also said her father was being denied his fundamental rights. “Since he was taken this morning, he has not been brought before any competent judicial authority to claim his rights and to permit him to avail himself of reliefs provided by law.”
“As I write this, he’s being forcibly taken to the Hague tonight. This shouldn’t be justice — that is oppression and persecution,” she added.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it was prepared to take care of national security and stability after Mr. Duterte’s arrest. It’s able to act on national security concerns, similar to destabilization plots, military spokeswoman Francel Margareth Padilla-Taborlupa told a news briefing.
Based on police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations that they are saying resulted in shootouts. But activists say the true toll of Duterte’s crackdown was far greater, with many hundreds more slumland drug users, some named on community “watch lists,” killed in mysterious circumstances.
The ICC’s prosecutor has said as many as 30,000 people can have been killed by police or unidentified people.
Police have rejected allegations by human rights groups of systematic executions and cover-ups.
Mr. Duterte’s arrest follows years of him rebuking and taunting the ICC since Philippine withdrawal from the tribunal.
The Philippines had refused to cooperate however the Marcos government modified tack in November and commenced signaling it could comply if an arrest warrant was issued. That got here just hours after remarks by Mr. Duterte in a legislative enquiry when he urged the ICC to “hurry up” with its investigation.
“I’m already old; I would die soon. You may miss the pleasure of seeing me standing before the court hearing the judgment whatever it’s,” he said on the time, adding that he assumed full responsibility for what happened.
‘TRUE JUSTICE’
News outlets earlier on Tuesday showed video footage of Mr. Duterte wearing a jacket and striped polo shirt and walking casually through a corridor on the airport upon his return from Hong Kong with several cops behind him.
Human rights groups said the arrest was a key step toward accountability for the killings of hundreds of individuals within the Philippines.
Randy delos Santos, the uncle of a highschool student Kian delos Santos, whose killing by police captured national attention, called the arrest “true justice.” “At the least he’s given the prospect to defend his side, unlike the victims of his war on drugs.”
Leila M. de Lima, a former senator who was jailed for seven years months after she led an investigation into the drug killings, said the victims’ families had fought courageously for justice.
“That is how justice should work — those in power should be held to the identical standards as everyone else,” she said in a press release. “Duterte is being made to reply — to not me, but to the victims, to their families, to a world that refuses to forget.”
“I’m expecting the Duterte camp to make use of his arrest to mobilize their supporters,” Arjan P. Aguirre, who teaches political science on the Ateneo de Manila University, said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “In the approaching days, key figures allied with Duterte will attempt to influence the general public and persuade them to protest.”
His supporters could paint him as a “political martyr,” Anthony Lawrence A. Borja, an associate political science professor at De La Salle University, said via Messenger chat.
The Duterte camp would likely frame his arrest as political persecution, linking it to their deepening feud with the Marcoses, said Jean S. Encinas-Franco, a University of the Philippines political science professor.
Mr. Duterte’s arrest is a step toward attaining justice for victims of his bloody drug war, House of Representatives Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga Rep. Aurelio D. Gonzales, Jr. said in a press release.
“The arrest may even begin correcting our damaged institutions and weaponized policies against the perceived enemies of the federal government,” Gary D. Ador Dionisio, dean of the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde School of Diplomacy and Governance said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
The Philippines should consider rejoining the ICC, Bataan Rep. Geraldine B. Roman told a news briefing. “We unilaterally withdrew from the ICC. I believe it’s about time we rejoin and show the world that this nation respects each our laws and international law.” — with Reuters
