By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Chloe Mari A. Hufana and Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporters

PHILIPPINE police arrested firebrand former President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Tuesday at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a major step in the world body’s investigation into thousands of killings in a bloody “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.

Mr. Duterte, the maverick former mayor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was served an arrest warrant on arrival from Hong Kong at Manila’s main airport and was now in custody, the office of his successor Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said in a statement.

The International Criminal Police Organization’s (Interpol) office in the Philippines got a copy of the ICC arrest warrant early Tuesday, and local police enforced it, the presidential palace said.

The war on drugs was Mr. Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial, crime-busting former prosecutor to power in 2016, and he soon delivered on promises made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of drug dealers and users.

If transferred to the Hague, he could become Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.

The ICC has been investigating the ex-President for alleged crimes against humanity that he allegedly committed when he was Davao City mayor and during the first three years of his government, when the Philippines was still a party to the international tribunal.

Mr. Duterte, 79, unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s founding treaty in 2019 when it started looking into allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings.

Mr. Duterte has insisted he told police to kill only in self-defense and has repeatedly defended the crackdown, saying he was willing to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of illegal drugs.

In a video posted on Instagram by daughter Veronica Duterte from Manila’s Villamor Air Base, where he was placed in custody, the former leader questioned the reason for his arrest.

“What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?” he said in the video. It was unclear who he was talking to. “I was brought here not of my own volition, it is somebody else’s. You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.”

In a 15-page warrant issued by the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I on March 7, Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc said at least 19 drug suspects were killed by members of the Davao Death Squad around Davao City when Mr. Duterte was still the mayor.

The chamber also alleged that at least 24 drug suspects were killed by or under the supervision of members of Philippine law enforcers, sometimes with the help of people who were not part of the police, in various places across the Philippines.

“It’s an unlawful arrest,” Salvador S. Panelo, Mr. Duterte’s legal counsel, said in a statement. “The Philippine National Police didn’t allow one of his lawyers to meet him at the airport to question the legal basis for President Duterte’s arrest.”

SUPREME COURT CASE
Meanwhile, Davao-based lawyer Israelito P. Torreon asked the Supreme Court on behalf of Mr. Duterte and Senator Ronald M. Dela Rosa — the national police chief who enforced the drug war —to stop the ICC trial, which he said does not have jurisdiction in the Philippines.

In a 94-page petition, he also sought the release of Mr. Duterte, arguing that his detention was illegal.

The High Court had raffled off the case, it said in a statement, without saying which division of the court would handle the lawsuit.

Human Rights Watch urged the Philippine government to immediately hand over Mr. Duterte to the ICC following his arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. “The Marcos government should swiftly surrender him to the ICC,” it said in a statement.

Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio in a statement said the government’s surrender of his father to foreign powers is a “blatant affront to our sovereignty and an insult to every Filipino who believes in our nation’s independence.”

She also said her father was being denied his fundamental rights. “Since he was taken this morning, he has not been brought before any competent judicial authority to assert his rights and to allow him to avail himself of reliefs provided by law.”

“As I write this, he is being forcibly taken to the Hague tonight. This is not justice — this is oppression and persecution,” she added.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it was prepared to maintain national security and stability after Mr. Duterte’s arrest. It is ready to act on national security concerns, such as destabilization plots, military spokeswoman Francel Margareth Padilla-Taborlupa told a news briefing.

According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations that they say ended in shootouts. But activists say the real toll of Duterte’s crackdown was far greater, with many thousands more slumland drug users, some named on community “watch lists,” killed in mysterious circumstances.

The ICC’s prosecutor has said as many as 30,000 people may have been killed by police or unidentified people.

Police have rejected allegations by human rights groups of systematic executions and cover-ups.

Mr. Duterte’s arrest follows years of him rebuking and taunting the ICC since Philippine withdrawal from the tribunal.

The Philippines had refused to cooperate but the Marcos government changed tack in November and started signaling it would comply if an arrest warrant was issued. That came just hours after remarks by Mr. Duterte in a legislative enquiry when he urged the ICC to “hurry up” with its investigation.

“I am already old; I might die soon. You might miss the pleasure of seeing me standing before the court hearing the judgment whatever it is,” he said at the time, adding that he assumed full responsibility for what happened.

‘TRUE JUSTICE’
News outlets earlier on Tuesday showed video footage of Mr. Duterte dressed in a jacket and striped polo shirt and walking casually through a corridor at the airport upon his return from Hong Kong with several police officers behind him.

Human rights groups said the arrest was a key step toward accountability for the killings of thousands of people in the Philippines.

Randy delos Santos, the uncle of a high school student Kian delos Santos, whose killing by police captured national attention, called the arrest “true justice.” “At least he is given the chance to defend his side, unlike the victims of his war on drugs.”

Leila M. de Lima, a former senator who was jailed for seven years months after she led an investigation into the drug killings, said the victims’ families had fought courageously for justice.

“This is how justice should work — those in power must be held to the same standards as everyone else,” she said in a statement. “Duterte is being made to answer — not to me, but to the victims, to their families, to a world that refuses to forget.”

“I’m expecting the Duterte camp to use his arrest to mobilize their supporters,” Arjan P. Aguirre, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “In the coming days, key figures allied with Duterte will try to influence the public and convince them to protest.”

His supporters could paint him as a “political martyr,” Anthony Lawrence A. Borja, an associate political science professor at De La Salle University, said via Messenger chat.

The Duterte camp would likely frame his arrest as political persecution, linking it to their deepening feud with the Marcoses, said Jean S. Encinas-Franco, a University of the Philippines political science professor.

Mr. Duterte’s arrest is a step toward attaining justice for victims of his bloody drug war, House of Representatives Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga Rep. Aurelio D. Gonzales, Jr. said in a statement.

“The arrest will also begin correcting our damaged institutions and weaponized policies against the perceived enemies of the government,” Gary D. Ador Dionisio, dean of the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde School of Diplomacy and Governance said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

The Philippines should consider rejoining the ICC, Bataan Rep. Geraldine B. Roman told a news briefing. “We unilaterally withdrew from the ICC. I think it’s about time we rejoin and show the world that this nation respects both our laws and international law.” — with Reuters