Why Did The ICC Arrest Ex-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte? – Analysis

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is in custody after authorities in his home country arrested him on a warrant from the International Criminal Court and put him on a plane bound for the Netherlands, where the world court is headquartered.

Philippine authorities had served Duterte with an arrest warrant from the ICC, as part of the court’s years-long investigation into his past administration’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.

The 79-year-old Duterte was arrested in Manila on Tuesday as he disembarked from a flight from Hong Kong. He was held for hours at an air base next to Manila’s international airport before being put on another plane that whisked him away to The Hague.

Here’s what you need to know about the ICC arrest order against Duterte:

What are the potential charges against Duterte?

As detailed in the ICC warrant, the former leader stands accused of committing crimes against humanity in connection with thousands of killings that occurred during a counter-narcotics crackdown under his watch as president (2016-22) and dating back to 2011, when he served as mayor of southern Davao city.

Human Rights Watch and other rights advocacy group have said that the police under Duterte had regularly falsified evidence to justify the killings of suspected drug dealers and addicts.

The Philippine government has given conflicting figures on how many people were killed in his administration’s so-called drug war. The last figure it gave was 6,252 suspects, who were killed from July 1, 2016 to May 31, 2022.

Rights groups, however, have put the death toll as high as 20,000-plus. They have noted that statistics for many of those who were killed had been placed into the government’s “death under investigation” category, and were therefore not logged as fatalities of Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign.

What evidence is there that Philippine police used excessive force?

Evidence has been piling up. Eight police officers have so far been convicted of murder carried out in the name of the drug war.

In June 2024, a court convicted four officers for the September 2016 killing of Luis Bonifacio, 45, and his 19-year-old son, Gabriel, inside their home. The court had said the victims’ injuries – including multiple gunshot wounds to their bodies – “glaringly show the brutality employed upon them, despite the pleading for mercy of the victims.”

In November 2018, a court in northern Manila convicted three police officers for killing 17-year-old teenager Kian Loyd delos Santos while he begged for mercy. It was not a shootout as police had claimed, and evidence later showed that he was also mistakenly killed.

His death galvanized opposition to Duterte’s drug war.

In March 2023, another policeman was found guilty of torturing two teenagers who were later found dead.

Duterte has made no effort to hide his “kill, kill, kill” order, and during his appearance before Congress in October, doubled down on his reason for doing so.

“If you think you will be killed, shoot him in the head. That would be one less criminal,” Duterte had said. He also admitted to the existence of his own private army,

“I can make the confession now if you want. I’m really doing it, but don’t involve the police,” Duterte told the hearing.

“I have a death squad, seven men, but they’re not police. They’re gangsters.”

The former president refused to name them.

Is the ICC arrest warrant still valid, given that the Philippines withdrew from the world court under President Duterte?

The warrant is valid because the ICC jurisdiction covers crimes that took place before the Philippines withdrew from the statute that created the international court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

However, crimes committed after the country’s withdrawal – which took effect on March 17, 2019 – aren’t covered.

Does the ICC still have jurisdiction over Philippine cases?

As a court of last resort, the ICC prosecutes cases only when a government is unwilling or unable to do so “genuinely.”

Duterte’s arrest on Tuesday was a sign that the ICC felt that the Philippines could not or would not conduct genuine investigations into the allegations.

What are the political ramifications of Duterte’s international arrest?

The Duterte and Marcos families are two of the leading political families in the Philippines. But Rodrigo Duterte has been openly feuding with his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and has repeatedly taunted the chief executive in public appearances.

Sara Duterte, Marcos’ vice president, is the former leader’s daughter. Despite leading in popularity surveys before the 2022 presidential election, Sara Duterte successfully opted to contest the polls as Marcos’ running mate.

The political alliance, which trampled the opposition in the May 2022 national polls, ended acrimoniously amid pressure on the Marcos government to allow an international investigation into the drug war waged by former President Duterte.

Last month, the House of Representatives impeached Sara Duterte for alleged constitutional violations, corruption, plotting to assassinate Marcos, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes – accusations which her family rejected as “political persecution.”

She is expected to face an impeachment trial before the Senate later this year.