Controversial ex-president arrested after drug suspects gunned down issues defiant message

Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested over claims of crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest after investigating mass killings that happened under the former president’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs. 

Mr Duterte, 79, was arrested at Manila’s international airport on Tuesday after arriving from Hong Kong. The Philippines government said in a statement: “Upon his arrival, the prosecutor general served the ICC notification for an arrest warrant to the former president for the crime of crime against humanity. He’s now in the custody of authorities.”

Mr Duterte’s arrest sparked a commotion at the airport.

Lawyers and aides of the former president protested that they, among others, were prevented from coming close to him after he was taken into police custody. Mr Duterte’s ally and former legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the arrest was “unlawful” as the ICC has “no jurisdiction” over the Philippines.

Mr Duterte, who was president between 2016 and 2022, withdrew the Philippines from the Rome Statue in 2019, in a move human rights activists claim was aimed at escaping accountability. 

The ICC has been investigating cases from November 2011, when Mr Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao, to March 2019.

The former president’s administration attempted to suspend the ICC’s investigation in 2021 but this was rejected.

More than 6,000 suspects were shot dead in anti-drug operations but activists say the death toll is even higher.

Mr Duterte came to power in 2016 after a campaign where he promised to kill drug dealers.

He has staunchly defended his anti-drugs crackdown but denies ordering the murders of drug suspects, saying he instructed police to kill only in self-defence.

Mr Duterte’s daughter shared a video of him in custody on social media.

In the video, he said: "What is the law and what is the crime that I committed? I was brought here not of my own volition, it is somebody else's. You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty."

Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said: “Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest is a long-awaited and monumental step for justice for the thousands of victims and survivors of his administration’s ‘war on drugs’, which turned much of the Philippines into a nation of mourning. 

“Duterte’s arrest on an ICC warrant is a hopeful sign for victims in the Philippines and beyond.”