Rodrigo Duterte, the previous president of the Philippines, was arrested on Tuesday in Manila, after the Worldwide Prison Courtroom issued a warrant accusing him of crimes towards humanity in his struggle on medicine through which, human rights teams say, tens of hundreds of Filipinos have been summarily executed.
He was taken into custody at Manila’s primary airport after getting back from a visit to Hong Kong, in response to the Philippine authorities. Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, Salvador Panelo, mentioned the arrest was illegal, partly as a result of the Philippines withdrew from the court docket whereas Mr. Duterte was in workplace.
Within the I.C.C. warrant, a three-judge panel wrote that, based mostly on proof offered by the court docket’s prosecutor, it believed that killings ordered by Mr. Duterte when he was mayor of town of Davao and later president have been “each widespread and systematic.”
The panel additionally mentioned it believed that “Mr. Duterte is individually chargeable for the crime towards humanity of homicide.” The New York Occasions obtained a duplicate of the warrant, which was sealed, and labeled “secret.”
Mr. Duterte, 79, who left workplace in 2022, is a populist firebrand who stays one of many Philippines’ most influential politicians, and he has loved relative immunity regardless of a number of accusations towards him in connection together with his antidrug marketing campaign.
However Mr. Duterte’s arrest may very well be a significant step towards accountability for hundreds of Filipinos who’ve lengthy sought justice for his or her family members, a lot of whom have been gunned down by cops, hit males and vigilantes. Activists say the overwhelming majority of victims have been poor, city Filipinos, a few of whom have been minors and individuals who had nothing to do with the drug commerce.
Solely a handful of individuals have been convicted in reference to the killings, which rights teams say totaled roughly 30,000.
“I’m very blissful that Duterte has been arrested so we are able to lastly have justice,” mentioned Cristina Jumola, whose three sons have been killed through the drug struggle. “We waited so lengthy for this.”
It was unclear whether or not Mr. Duterte could be compelled to give up to the I.C.C., which is predicated in The Hague. The case might be a high-profile take a look at of the court docket, which in latest months has sought the arrest of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the top of the navy junta in Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, accusing each males of crimes towards humanity.
Minutes earlier than he was arrested, Mr. Duterte was characteristically defiant.
“You would need to kill me first, if you will ally with white foreigners,” Mr. Duterte mentioned as he was getting off the aircraft from Hong Kong, in response to a video posted by GMA Information, a Philippine broadcaster.
For years, Mr. Duterte appeared untouchable. As mayor of Davao, the second-largest metropolis within the Philippines, for greater than 20 years, he ran a lethal antidrug crackdown with impunity. In 2016, he parlayed his law-and-order credentials right into a victory within the presidential election, though consultants mentioned the nation didn’t have an outsized drawback with medicine.
At his remaining marketing campaign rally that yr, Mr. Duterte informed the group to “overlook the legal guidelines on human rights.”
“You drug pushers, holdup males and do-nothings, you higher exit,” he mentioned. “As a result of I’ll kill you.” He mentioned he would give himself and his safety forces immunity from prosecution and pardon himself “for the crime of a number of homicide.”
Whereas in workplace, Mr. Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the I.C.C., which had begun trying into the extrajudicial killings.
Mr. Panelo, Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, mentioned the arrest was illegal partially as a result of the Philippine police had not allowed the previous president’s attorneys to fulfill him on the airport. He mentioned he deliberate to deliver legal complaints towards the police and the officers who ordered the arrest.
He added that the arrest was unlawful as a result of the arrest warrant “comes from a spurious supply, the I.C.C., which has no jurisdiction over the Philippines.”
However the Philippines continues to be a member of Interpol, which might search the arrest of Mr. Duterte on behalf of the I.C.C. A consultant of Interpol was current when Mr. Duterte was arrested.
When Mr. Duterte’s single, six-year time period resulted in 2022, his administration mentioned that 6,252 individuals had been killed by safety forces — all described by officers as “drug suspects.”
Mr. Duterte had appeared to take pleasure in impunity even beneath his successor, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. The son of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, he rose to the presidency after forming a political alliance with Mr. Duterte’s daughter Sara, who was elected as his vp. Early in his administration, Mr. Marcos indicated that he wouldn’t cooperate with the I.C.C.
However ties between Mr. Marcos and Ms. Duterte unraveled shortly and in spectacular trend. By late 2023, Mr. Marcos’s authorities had quietly allowed I.C.C. investigators to enter the Philippines.
Final yr, the Philippines’ Home of Representatives began an inquiry into Mr. Duterte’s drug struggle. The previous president refused to testify within the Home however appeared at a listening to within the Senate, the place he has appreciable assist, in October.
“For all of its successes and shortcomings, I, and I alone, take full obligation,” he mentioned of the antidrug marketing campaign. “For all of the police did pursuant to my orders, I’ll take accountability. I ought to be the one jailed, not the policemen who obeyed my orders. It’s pitiful, they’re simply doing their jobs.”
Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris.