Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrested on ICC warrant over drug-related killings

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrested at Manila’s airport

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested at Manila's international airport on Tuesday under an International Criminal Court (ICC) order, the Philippine government announced.

Authorities took Duterte into custody after he arrived from Hong Kong, following the ICC’s investigation into widespread killings during his controversial anti-drug campaign. President Ferdinand Marcos' office confirmed the arrest in a statement.

The ICC has been probing drug-related killings under Duterte from November 1, 2011, when he was Davao’s mayor, to March 16, 2019, for potential crimes against humanity.

Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Rome Statute in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability over the killings.

The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court's investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing the ICC — a court of last resort — didn't have jurisdiction.

Appeals judges at the ICC ruled in July 2023 the investigation could resume and rejected the Duterte administration's objections. Based in The Hague, the Netherlands, the ICC 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.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte in 2022 and became entangled in a bitter political dispute with the former president, has decided not to rejoin the global court.

But the Marcos administration has said it would cooperate if the ICC asks international police to take Duterte into custody through a so-called Red Notice, a request for law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect.