Former Philippini Duterte leader arrested on ICC order for drug killings

The Philippine Police have arrested former President Rodrigo Duterte after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an order accusing him of crimes against humanity over his deadly “war against drugs.”

The 79-year-old was taken to police arrest shortly after arriving at Manila Airport from Hong Kong.

He did not propose any excuses for his brutal drug fighting, in which thousands were killed when he was president of the Southeast Asian nation from 2016 to 2022, and the mayor of the city of Dabao.

After his arrest, he asked the basis for the order, asking, “What crime (I have) I committed?”

Former President of Duterte President Salvador Panelo criticizes arrest, calling him “illegal” when the Philippines retired from the ICC in 2019.

ICC said earlier that there was a jurisdiction in the Philippines because of the supposed crimes committed before the country retired as a member.

But activists called the arrest “historical moment” for those who died in his drug war and their families, said the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (Ichrp).

“The rainbow of the moral universe is long, but today it is aimed at justice. The Dutherte’s arrest is the beginning of reporting to the mass murder that define its brutal rule,” said ICHRP chairman Peter Murphy.

Duterte was in Hong Kong to campaign for the upcoming May 12 elections in the medium term, where he had planned to run again for mayor of Dado.

Shots broadcast on local television showed him to leave the airport with the help of a cane. Authorities say he is in good health and takes care of government doctors.

“What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life of the Philippine people,” he told a cheerful crowd of Philippine emigrants before leaving Hong Kong.

A video, published by his daughter, Veronica Duterte, showed Duterte in custody at a lounge at Manila Air Base. It can be heard to question the cause of his arrest.

“What is the law and what is the crime I committed? I was not brought here at his own request, he is someone else. You have to answer now about imprisonment.”

Dutterte’s arrest marks “the beginning of a new chapter in Philippin’s history,” said Philippine political scientist Richard Haydarian.

“This is about the rule of law and human rights,” he said.

Haedarian added that the authorities had immediately arrested the Duterte at the airport instead of letting the issue take their course through local courts to “avoid political chaos.”

“The Duterte supporters hoped that Berserk could go to public rallies and (use) any delayed tactics … (yes) dragged things until the arrest warrant lost inertia,” he said.

The search for justice in the Duther drug war goes “hand” with the political interests of his heir, President Ferdinand Marcos -Jr., Haydarian said.

The families of Duterte and Marcos formed a great union in the last 2022 election, where, against the wishes of the older Duterte, his daughter Sarah was running for Vice President of Marcos Jr. instead of seeking his father’s post.

The relationship has been publicly unraveling in recent months, as the two families have conducted separate political programs.

Initially, Marcos refused to cooperate with the ICC investigation, but since his relationship with the Duterte family deteriorated, he changed his position and later said that the Philippines would cooperate.

It is not yet clear whether Marcos will reach the extradition of the former president to judge the Hague.

Duterte serves as mayor of Dado, scattered southern metropolis, for 22 years and has made him one of the most favorable of street crimes in the country.

He uses the reputation of peace and the order of the city to present himself as a difficult politician to combat the establishment to win the 2016 election from landslide.

With rhetoric fiery, he gathered the security forces to shoot with the drugs suspected in drugs. More than 6,000 suspects were shot by police or unknown attackers during the campaign, but rights groups say its number may be more large.

A previous UN report found that most victims were young, poor urban men, and that police who do not need orders to search or arresting house attacks systematically force the suspects to make self -observation statements or risk of being faced with deadly force.

Critics said the campaign was aimed at street pushers and failed to catch drug masters in great times. Many families also claimed that the victims – their sons, brothers or spouses – were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Investigations in parliament have pointed out a shady “Death Squad” of head hunters aimed at drug suspects. Duterte denied the allegations of abuse.

“Do not question your policies because you do not offer excuses without excuses. I did what I had to do and whether you believe it or not … I did it for my country,” Dutnerte told an investigation into parliament in October.

“I hate drugs, don’t be fooled about it.”

The ICC first took into account the alleged abuses in 2016 and began its investigation in 2021. It covered cases since November 2011, when Dutner was mayor of Dado, until March 2019, before the Philippines retired from the MNS.

Duterte remains popular in the Philippines as he is the first leader in the country in Mindanao, a region south of Manila, where many feel marginalized by leaders in the capital.

He often speaks in Sebuano, the regional language, not in a tagalog, which is spoken more widely in Manila and the northern regions.

His populist rhetoric and dumb statements were won by Donald Trump from the East. He called Russian President Vladimir Putin their “idol” and under their administration the Philippines turned their foreign policy to China away from the United States, with their longtime ally.

His daughter and political successor, Sarah Duterte, has been misled as a potential presidential candidate in 2028. The current Marcos is banned by the Constitution from seeking re -election.

Additional reporting from Virma Simoneta in Manila and Kelly Ng in Singapore