The court has alleged Duterte committed crimes against humanity between 2011 – when he was still the mayor of the southern city of Davao – and 2019, when the then President withdrew his country from the Rome Statute, a move critics suspected was an attempt to escape accountability for his actions.
Officially, around 6000 people died during his so-called “war on drugs”, but data cited by the ICC estimates between 12,000 and 30,000 civilians were killed.
The Duterte administration moved to suspend the ICC’s investigation in late 2021, arguing that that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations and the international court – a court of last resort – did not have jurisdiction.
In recent years the former President appeared to benefit from impunity at home. But last November, Ferdinand Marcos, the current President, changed course, indicating his Government was willing to hand him over.
The shift came amid a spectacular fallout between the archipelago’s two major political dynasties. Marcos, the son of the country’s former dictator, was elected President in 2022, while his Vice-President was Sara Duterte, the former leader’s daughter.
Yet the relationship quickly deteriorated into a feud, with Duterte suggesting late last year she had hired a hitman to kill Marcos. She also faces separate impeachment charges over alleged misuse of millions in public funds.
The Interpol arrest has been welcomed by many activists and victims. Leila de Lima, a former senator and one of Duterte’s fiercest critics, who was jailed for almost seven years on baseless charges, said it was the first step towards justice.
“Today, Duterte is being made to answer – not to me, but to the victims, to their families, to a world that refuses to forget. This is not about vengeance. This is about justice finally taking its course,” she said.
‘You will just have to kill me’
However, Duterte, who still has strong support in parts of the country, remained bullish on Tuesday.
In a video from the broadcaster GMA, taken as he was stopped in Manila, he said: “You will just have to kill me. I won’t allow you to take the side of the white foreigners.”
He justified the brutal efforts to tackle illegal drugs when he appeared alongside his daughter at a rally in Hong Kong on Monday.
“Why did I do it? For myself? For my family? For you and your children, and for our nation,” he said.
“If this is truly my fate in life, it’s okay, I will accept it. They can arrest me, imprison me. What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life for the Filipino people.”
He previously declared the ICC “does not scare me one bit”.
The court, based in The Hague, can step in when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects in the most heinous international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is backed by 125 member states.
In this case, it is unclear what exactly happens next. The high-profile arrest could be seen as a test for a court that has also issued warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, and Min Aung Hlaing, who leads Myanmar’s military junta.
A lawyer in the Philippines said he had already filed a petition with the Supreme Court on behalf of Duterte to compel authorities to stop co-operating with the ICC.
Peter Mumford, director of the Eurasia Group in Southeast Asia, said: “There is speculation that Duterte is being held at the air base to make it easier to deport him to The Hague, though the former President, who turns 80 this month and suffers from various ailments, may seek to delay [or] prevent this on medical grounds.
“This latest development raises the temperature further in the bitter spat between the Duterte and Marcos dynasties, but it does not fundamentally change the political outlook in the Philippines.”
