Ex-Philippine president Duterte arrested for crimes against humanity
Manila (AFP) – Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested Tuesday in Manila by police acting on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs.
Issued on: 11/03/2025 - FRANCE24
This handout photo taken and released by Rodrigo Duterte's PDP Laban party shows the former Philippine president (C) inside the Villamor Air Base in Manila © Handout / PARTIDO DEMOKRATIKO PILIPINO–LAKAS NG BAYAN (PDP LABAN)/AFP
The 79-year-old faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder", according to the ICC, for a crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
"Early in the morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC," the presidential palace said in a statement.
"As of now, he is under the custody of authorities."
Duterte demanded to know the basis of his arrest in a video posted to his youngest daughter Veronica's Instagram account following his detention.
"So what is the law and what is the crime that I committed? Show to me now the legal basis of my being here," he said in the video.
"I was brought here not of my own volition but somebody else's ... you have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty."
While no location was given for the video, a photo released by his political party said he was being held at the Villamor Air Base next to Manila airport.
Duterte's former chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, called the arrest "unlawful".
Police arrested former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte as he arrived at Manila's international Airport © Jam STA ROSA / AFP
"The (Philippine National Police) didn't allow one of his lawyers to meet him at the airport and to question the legal basis for PRRD's arrest," he said.
Reactions from those who opposed to the drug war, however, were jubilant.
One group that worked to support mothers of those killed in the crackdown called the arrest a "very welcome development".
"The mothers whose husbands and children were killed because of the drug war are very happy because they have been waiting for this for a very long time," Rubilyn Litao, coordinator for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, told AFP.
"Now that Duterte has been arrested, (President) Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should make sure that he is actually delivered to the ICC for detention and trial," said Philippine rights alliance Karapatan, calling the arrest "long overdue".
Human Rights Watch also called on the government to "swiftly surrender (Duterte) to the ICC", saying the arrest was a "critical step for accountability in the Philippines".
China however warned the ICC against "politicisation" and "double standards" in the Duterte case and said it was "closely monitoring the development of the situation".
A winding path
Duterte's Tuesday morning arrest at Manila's international airport followed a brief trip to Hong Kong.
Speaking to thousands of overseas Filipino workers there Sunday, the former president decried the investigation, labelling ICC investigators "sons of whores" while saying he would "accept it" if an arrest were to be his fate.
Rights groups estimate that tens of thousands of mostly poor men were killed by police and vigilantes during Duterte's drug war © NOEL CELIS / AFP/File
The Philippines quit the ICC in 2019 on Duterte's instructions, but the tribunal maintained it had jurisdiction over killings before the pullout, as well as killings in the southern city of Davao when Duterte was mayor, years before he became president.
It launched a formal inquiry in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes.
The case resumed in July 2023 after a five-judge panel rejected the Philippines' objection that the court lacked jurisdiction.
Since then, the Marcos government has on numerous instances said it would not cooperate with the investigation.
But Undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office Claire Castro on Sunday said that if Interpol would "ask the necessary assistance from the government, it is obliged to follow".
Duterte is still hugely popular among many in the Philippines who supported his quick-fix solutions to crime, and he remains a potent political force.
He is running to reclaim his job as mayor of his stronghold Davao in May's mid-term election.
Charges have been filed locally in a handful of cases related to drug operations that led to deaths -- only nine police have been convicted for slaying alleged drug suspects.
A self-professed killer, Duterte instructed police to fatally shoot narcotics suspects if their lives were at risk and insisted the crackdown saved families and prevented the Philippines from turning into a "narco-politics state".
At the opening of a Philippine Senate probe into the drug war in October, Duterte said he offered "no apologies, no excuses" for his actions.
"I did what I had to do, and whether or not you believe it or not, I did it for my country," he said.
© 2025 AFP
The 79-year-old faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder", according to the ICC, for a crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
"Early in the morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC," the presidential palace said in a statement.
"As of now, he is under the custody of authorities."
Duterte demanded to know the basis of his arrest in a video posted to his youngest daughter Veronica's Instagram account following his detention.
"So what is the law and what is the crime that I committed? Show to me now the legal basis of my being here," he said in the video.
"I was brought here not of my own volition but somebody else's ... you have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty."
While no location was given for the video, a photo released by his political party said he was being held at the Villamor Air Base next to Manila airport.
Duterte's former chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, called the arrest "unlawful".
Police arrested former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte as he arrived at Manila's international Airport © Jam STA ROSA / AFP"The (Philippine National Police) didn't allow one of his lawyers to meet him at the airport and to question the legal basis for PRRD's arrest," he said.
Reactions from those who opposed to the drug war, however, were jubilant.
One group that worked to support mothers of those killed in the crackdown called the arrest a "very welcome development".
"The mothers whose husbands and children were killed because of the drug war are very happy because they have been waiting for this for a very long time," Rubilyn Litao, coordinator for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, told AFP.
"Now that Duterte has been arrested, (President) Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should make sure that he is actually delivered to the ICC for detention and trial," said Philippine rights alliance Karapatan, calling the arrest "long overdue".
Human Rights Watch also called on the government to "swiftly surrender (Duterte) to the ICC", saying the arrest was a "critical step for accountability in the Philippines".
China however warned the ICC against "politicisation" and "double standards" in the Duterte case and said it was "closely monitoring the development of the situation".
A winding path
Duterte's Tuesday morning arrest at Manila's international airport followed a brief trip to Hong Kong.
Speaking to thousands of overseas Filipino workers there Sunday, the former president decried the investigation, labelling ICC investigators "sons of whores" while saying he would "accept it" if an arrest were to be his fate.
The Philippines quit the ICC in 2019 on Duterte's instructions, but the tribunal maintained it had jurisdiction over killings before the pullout, as well as killings in the southern city of Davao when Duterte was mayor, years before he became president.
It launched a formal inquiry in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes.
The case resumed in July 2023 after a five-judge panel rejected the Philippines' objection that the court lacked jurisdiction.
Since then, the Marcos government has on numerous instances said it would not cooperate with the investigation.
But Undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office Claire Castro on Sunday said that if Interpol would "ask the necessary assistance from the government, it is obliged to follow".
Duterte is still hugely popular among many in the Philippines who supported his quick-fix solutions to crime, and he remains a potent political force.
He is running to reclaim his job as mayor of his stronghold Davao in May's mid-term election.
Charges have been filed locally in a handful of cases related to drug operations that led to deaths -- only nine police have been convicted for slaying alleged drug suspects.
A self-professed killer, Duterte instructed police to fatally shoot narcotics suspects if their lives were at risk and insisted the crackdown saved families and prevented the Philippines from turning into a "narco-politics state".
At the opening of a Philippine Senate probe into the drug war in October, Duterte said he offered "no apologies, no excuses" for his actions.
"I did what I had to do, and whether or not you believe it or not, I did it for my country," he said.
© 2025 AFP
Ex-Philippine president Duterte arrested for crimes against humanity
Philippines' Duterte earned international infamy, praise at home
Manila (AFP) – Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte earned international infamy for the deadly narcotics crackdown that led to his arrest Tuesday on charges of crimes against humanity, despite enjoying huge popularity at home.
Issued on: 11/03/2025 - FRANCE24
Manila (AFP) – Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte earned international infamy for the deadly narcotics crackdown that led to his arrest Tuesday on charges of crimes against humanity, despite enjoying huge popularity at home.
Issued on: 11/03/2025 - FRANCE24
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, pictured here in 2018, was arrested Tuesday in Manila on charges of crimes against humanity © TED ALJIBE / AFP/File
A tough-talking populist and self-professed killer, Duterte's anti-crime campaign resulted in the deaths of thousands of alleged dealers and addicts.
Yet while drawing condemnation abroad, tens of millions of Filipinos backed his swift brand of justice -- even as he joked about rape in his rambling speeches, locked up his critics and failed to root out entrenched corruption.
That trust was dented by the coronavirus pandemic which plunged the country into its worst economic crisis in decades, leaving thousands dead and millions jobless with a slow-paced vaccine rollout.
Duterte's woes deepened in 2021, when the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sought an investigation into crimes against humanity during his drugs crackdown.
Duterte, now 79, repeatedly said there was no official campaign to illegally kill addicts and dealers, but his speeches included incitements to violence and he told police to kill drug suspects if their lives were in danger.
'Kill them'
"If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful," Duterte said, hours after being sworn in as president in June 2016.
Months later, he would liken the deadly crackdown to Hitler's efforts to exterminate Jews, although vastly underestimating the number of people killed in the Holocaust.
"Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them."
His unfiltered comments are part of his self-styled image as a maverick, which found traction in a nation where corruption, bureaucracy and dysfunction impact people's lives at every level.
While unable to run for president again after serving a six-year term that ended in 2022, Duterte remains a major figure in politics.
He has been seeking a return to his old job as mayor of his southern stronghold of Davao mid-term elections in May.
A one-time ally of the Marcos family, Duterte even allowed Ferdinand Marcos Sr, whose brutal regime silenced the legislature and killed opponents, to be buried in the capital's Heroes' Cemetery.
But the alliance of dynasties has long since collapsed, and Duterte is engaged in a feud with current President Ferdinand Marcos.
His daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, faces an impeachment trial in the Senate.
'I simply love Xi'
The former lawyer and prosecutor was born in 1945 into a political family.
His father served for three years as a cabinet secretary before the nation plunged into dictatorship in 1972.
During his long tenure as mayor of the southern city of Davao, Duterte was accused of links to vigilante death squads that rights groups say killed more than 1,000 people there -- accusations he has both accepted and denied.
His tenure as president was also marked by a swing away from the nation's former colonial master, the United States, in favour of China.
"I simply love (Chinese president) Xi Jinping... he understands my problem and is willing to help, so I would say thank you China," he said in April 2018.
As part of that rapprochement, he set aside rivalry with Beijing over the resource-rich South China Sea, opting to court Chinese business instead.
He claimed this friendship helped secure millions of doses of a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine, but supplies still fell far short.
Billions of dollars of promised trade and investment from its superpower neighbour also failed to materialise.
President Marcos has made both Duterte's perceived coziness with Beijing and his bloody drug war a centrepiece of his campaigning ahead of the May mid-terms.
Duterte was arrested at Manila's international airport after returning from a brief trip to Hong Kong.
The former president had previously said he was ready to go to jail for his anti-narcotics crackdown, but vowed never to allow himself to come under ICC jurisdiction.
© 2025 AFP
A tough-talking populist and self-professed killer, Duterte's anti-crime campaign resulted in the deaths of thousands of alleged dealers and addicts.
Yet while drawing condemnation abroad, tens of millions of Filipinos backed his swift brand of justice -- even as he joked about rape in his rambling speeches, locked up his critics and failed to root out entrenched corruption.
That trust was dented by the coronavirus pandemic which plunged the country into its worst economic crisis in decades, leaving thousands dead and millions jobless with a slow-paced vaccine rollout.
Duterte's woes deepened in 2021, when the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sought an investigation into crimes against humanity during his drugs crackdown.
Duterte, now 79, repeatedly said there was no official campaign to illegally kill addicts and dealers, but his speeches included incitements to violence and he told police to kill drug suspects if their lives were in danger.
'Kill them'
"If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful," Duterte said, hours after being sworn in as president in June 2016.
Months later, he would liken the deadly crackdown to Hitler's efforts to exterminate Jews, although vastly underestimating the number of people killed in the Holocaust.
"Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them."
His unfiltered comments are part of his self-styled image as a maverick, which found traction in a nation where corruption, bureaucracy and dysfunction impact people's lives at every level.
While unable to run for president again after serving a six-year term that ended in 2022, Duterte remains a major figure in politics.
He has been seeking a return to his old job as mayor of his southern stronghold of Davao mid-term elections in May.
A one-time ally of the Marcos family, Duterte even allowed Ferdinand Marcos Sr, whose brutal regime silenced the legislature and killed opponents, to be buried in the capital's Heroes' Cemetery.
But the alliance of dynasties has long since collapsed, and Duterte is engaged in a feud with current President Ferdinand Marcos.
His daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, faces an impeachment trial in the Senate.
'I simply love Xi'
The former lawyer and prosecutor was born in 1945 into a political family.
His father served for three years as a cabinet secretary before the nation plunged into dictatorship in 1972.
During his long tenure as mayor of the southern city of Davao, Duterte was accused of links to vigilante death squads that rights groups say killed more than 1,000 people there -- accusations he has both accepted and denied.
His tenure as president was also marked by a swing away from the nation's former colonial master, the United States, in favour of China.
"I simply love (Chinese president) Xi Jinping... he understands my problem and is willing to help, so I would say thank you China," he said in April 2018.
As part of that rapprochement, he set aside rivalry with Beijing over the resource-rich South China Sea, opting to court Chinese business instead.
He claimed this friendship helped secure millions of doses of a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine, but supplies still fell far short.
Billions of dollars of promised trade and investment from its superpower neighbour also failed to materialise.
President Marcos has made both Duterte's perceived coziness with Beijing and his bloody drug war a centrepiece of his campaigning ahead of the May mid-terms.
Duterte was arrested at Manila's international airport after returning from a brief trip to Hong Kong.
The former president had previously said he was ready to go to jail for his anti-narcotics crackdown, but vowed never to allow himself to come under ICC jurisdiction.
© 2025 AFP
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