INTERPOL Manila arrested the former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, on Tuesday for the alleged crimes against humanity committed during his “war on drugs” campaign between 2011 and 2019.
According to the Philippines Presidential Communication Office, INTERPOL Manila arrested Duterte at the airport upon his arrival from Hong Kong, after receiving an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the same day.
In a video posted by his daughter on Instagram, Duterte disputed the basis of the arrest, claiming that the detention was warrantless and illegal. Former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo also argued that the arrest was politically motivated to prevent Duterte from participating in the 2028 presidential race. The arrest triggered protests at the airport from Duterte’s supporters.
Panelo additionally argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction following the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute in March 2019. The Philippines Supreme Court dismissed two petitions seeking to challenge the validity of the withdrawal in 2021.
Following the withdrawal, the ICC Prosecutor deferred the investigation upon the state’s request. However, the ICC Appeal Chambers, by a 3-2 majority, authorized the investigation to resume in 2023, reasoning that the Philippines had implicitly consented to the court’s jurisdiction when it requested the deferral. The dissent criticized the majority’s reasoning for failing to adequately consider the effect on the court’s jurisdiction brought by the 2019 withdrawal.
The alleged crimes included the extrajudicial killings in Davao City while Duterte was mayor between 2011 and 2016, and the “war on drug” campaign between 2016 and 2019 in his presidency. According to Human Rights Watch, over 12,000 Filipinos were killed in the campaign, among which 2,555 were attributable to the Philippine National Police. Apart from the murders, the group also accused the authorities of falsifying evidence to justify the murders as “self-defense.” In 2019, a group of UN human rights experts urged the Human Rights Council to investigate the high number of arbitrary executions, criticizing the then administration’s failure to hold perpetrators accountable.
The prosecution of the crimes against humanity is based on Article 7 of the Rome Statute, with the alleged acts of murder, torture or inhumane acts, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, and sexual and gender-based crimes.
Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, welcomed the arrest and called on the authorities to surrender him to the ICC, saying:
Former President Duterte was at the centre of a grave human rights crisis in the country, but he is not the only one suspected of criminal responsibility, nor have violations stopped since he left office. It is incumbent on the present government that investigations and prosecutions do not end with his arrest and extend to domestic-level accountability for all those responsible for human rights violations in the ‘war on drugs.’
The Philippines criminalized the crime against humanity domestically in 2009. In 2024, its permanent mission to the UN also affirmed that the country recognizes its responsibility to exercise criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes. In other words, even if the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the alleged crimes between 2011 and 2019, national authorities and domestic courts can assert jurisdiction over Duterte for the alleged crimes.
