The Police arrested Rodrigo Duterte, the former Philippine President, at Manila’s International Airport on the 11th of March. The arrest was made in execution of a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with a case of crime against humanity, according to Philippine government officials.
Reason for arrest-
Former President was arrested upon his return from Hong Kong. The law enforcement agency took Duterte into custody on the orders of the ICC. The former President has been charged with “the crime against humanity” by the ICC. The warrant executed was subject to investigation of the mass killings committed under the former President’s deadly crackdown against illegal drugs, as per the Office of the President Ferdinand Marcos.
“Early in the morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC,” as per the Presidential office’s announcement. “As of now, he is under the custody of authorities.” The announcement further added that “the former president and his group are in good health and are being checked by government doctors”.
This sudden surprise arrest has sparked a commotion at the airport, where the lawyers and aides of Duterte loudly protested that they, along with a doctor and lawyers, were prevented from coming close to him after he was taken into police custody. “This is a violation of his constitutional right,” Sen. Bong Go, a close Duterte ally, told the reporters.
The investigation-
“This is a big, long-awaited day for justice,” Randy delos Santos, uncle of a teenager killed by the police during an anti-drug operation in August 2017 in the Manila metropolis, told The Associated Press. The ICC started investigating the drug-related killings under the Duterte administration from November 1, 2011. By that time he was the mayor of the southern city of Davao, until March 16, 2019, as possible crimes against humanity. President Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Rome Statute in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability.
During his tenure, the Duterte administration moved to suspend the investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same matter, and also arguing that the ICC didn’t have any jurisdiction. Appellate Judges at the ICC ruled out in 2023 that the investigation could resume and rejected the objections raised by the Duterte administration. Based in Hague, the Netherlands, the ICC can step in when countries are not willing or unable to prosecute suspects in the most heinous international crimes, including the genocide, war crimes and the crimes against humanity.
The Present Regime-
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte in 2022 and thereafter got into a bitter political dispute with the former President. He decided not to rejoin the ICC, but the Marcos administration has said that it would cooperate if the ICC asks the International Police to take Duterte into custody through the Red Notice. Red Notice is a request for the Law Enforcement Agencies globally to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect.
