Philippine police arrested former president Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday in Manila and sent him by plane to the Netherlands to face crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, President Ferdinand Marcos said.
The World Court of The Hague had ordered Duterte’s arrest by Interpol after having accused him of crimes against humanity for deadly anti-drug repression he supervised during his mandate, Marcos said at a press conference at the end of the night. Duterte was arrested Tuesday morning at Manila International Airport when she arrived with her Hong Kong family.
By walking slowly with a rod, the former president of 79 years briefly turned to a small group of aids and supporters, who cried and offer him goodbye, before an escort loves him on the plane.
Her daughter, vice-president Sara Duterte, said she had asked for entry into the air base where her father was detained but that he was refused. She criticized the Marcos administration for abandoning her father to a foreign court which currently has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
Marcos said that Duterte’s arrest was “appropriate and correct” and not an act of political persecution, because the Philippines are a member of Interpol.
Among the most feared leaders in Asia while in power, Duterte became the first ex-leader in the region to be arrested by the World Court.
Dressed in a dark jacket, a furious Duterte protested against her arrest after arriving in Manila and asked the authorities the legal basis for his detention. His lawyers immediately asked the Supreme Court to block any attempt to transport the Philippines.
“Now show me the legal basis of my being here,” asked the authorities to be in remarks captured on video by her daughter, Veronica Duterte, who published images on social networks. “You must respond now for the deprivation of freedom.”
The surprise arrest launched an agitation at the airport, where lawyers and Duterte aid protested that they were prevented from getting closer to him after being placed in police custody. “This is a violation of his constitutional right,” the journalists the Senator Bong Go, a close ally of Duterte, told journalists.
ICC probe murders during the repression of the drug
The ICC has investigated mass murders in repression supervised by Duterte when he was mayor of the city of Davao in the South of the Philippines and later as president. Estimates the number of deaths of repression during the presidential mandate of Duterte vary, compared to the more than 6,000 that the national police reported up to 30,000 human rights groups.
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The ICC arrest warrant, seen by the Associated Press, said: “There is reasonable reasons to believe that” the attack on the victims “was both widespread and systematic: the attack took place over a period of several years and thousands of people seem to have been killed”.
Duterte’s arrest was necessary “to guarantee his appearance before the court,” said the mandate of March 7. “Aware of the risk that results from interference with surveys and security of witnesses and victims, the Chamber is convinced that the arrest of Mr. Duterte is necessary.”
In a brief declaration after the plane had taken off, the ICC confirmed that one of its rooms before the trial had issued an arrest warrant against Duterte for “murder as a crime against humanity which would have been committed in the Philippines between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019.”
The families of the killed celebrate the arrest
The arrest and the fall of Duterte led families who killed the victims of his repression against tears. Some gathered in a street rally to welcome its arrest.
“It’s a great day long awaited for justice,” said Randy Delos Santos at the AP. His teenage nephew was killed by police in an alley in Dark Riverside during an anti-drug operation in the city of Calocan in the suburbs in August 2017.
“We hope that the best police officers and hundreds of police officers involved in illegal killings should also be placed in detention and punished,” said Delos Santos.
Three police officers were convicted in 2018 for the very publicized murder of his nephew, Kian Delos Santos, encouraged to temporarily suspend his repression.
The conviction has been one of the only three to three so far against the police involved in the anti-drug campaign. Former senator Antonio Trillanes, who directed the filing of a complaint against Duterte before the ICC, said that the arrest was historic, a major blow to impunity and tyranny.
“It’s like the fall of an emperor,” said Trillanes at the AP. “The next step is now to ensure that all of his supporters who have committed criminal transgressions as he should also be held to report.”
The government said the former 79 -year -old was in good health and was examined by government doctors.
Duterte’s government tried to block the ICC probe
The ICC has started investigating drug murders under Duterte from November 1, 2011, when he was still mayor of Davao on March 16, 2019, as possible crimes against humanity. Duterte withdrawn the Philippines in 2019 from Rome’s status, the founding treaty of the Court, in a decision of human rights activists, according to human rights, aimed to escape responsibility.
The DUTERTE administration decided to suspend the investigation of the World Court at the end of 2021 by arguing that the Philippine authorities already examined the same allegations, arguing that the ICC – a court of last appeal – therefore had not jurisdiction.
The ICC appeal judges ruled in 2023 the investigation could resume and rejected the objections of the Duterte administration. Based in The Hague, the Netherlands, the ICC can intervene when countries are not willing or unable to continue suspects in the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte in 2022, decided not to join the World Court. But the Marcos administration said it would cooperate if the ICC asked the international police to get into police custody by an alleged red notice, a request for law enforcement organizations worldwide to locate and temporarily stop a crime suspect.
–The journalists of the Associated Press, Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila, in Manila, in the Philippines, and Mike Corde and Molly Quell in The Hague, in the Netherlands, contributed to this report.
