Ex-Filipino Duterte is thrown to The Hague to deal

By Jim Gomez

Manila, Philippines (AP) – a plane carrying the former Philippine President Rodrigo Dutete left Manila on Tuesday evening to be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, who ordered his arrest for alleged humanity, said President Ferdinand Marcos.

Dutete was arrested after reaching his family in Hong Kong at Manila International Airport Tuesday morning guarantees from ICC. The Global Court ordered his arrest through Interpol after accusing him of offenses against humanity over Deadly anti-drug repression He supervised while he was in office, Marcos said in a late-night press conference.

Going slowly with a reed, the former 79-year-old president shortly headed for a small group of assistants and supporters, who cried and said goodbye before an escort to help him on the plane.

His daughter, Vice President Sara Dutete, said she sought the entrance to the air base where her father was detained, but was refused. She criticized the Marcos administration because she taught her father at a foreign court, which currently has no competence in the Philippines.

Marcos said that Dutete’s arrest was “adequate and correct” and not an act of political persecution, because Philippines is a member of Interpol.

Among the most fearful leaders in Asia, while in power, Duterte became the first ex-leader in the region that was arrested by the global court.

Dressed in a dark jacket, a Dutter Ierate protested against his arrest after arriving in Manila and asked the authorities the legal basis of his detention. His lawyers immediately asked the Supreme Court to block any attempt to transport him from the Philippines.

“It shows me the legal basis now to be here,” he asked the authorities in observations captured on the video by his daughter, Veronica Duterte, who posted the materials on social networks. “You have to respond now for deprivation of liberty.”

The arrest of surprise aroused an agitation at the airport, where Duterte’s lawyers and assistants protested that, together with a doctor, they were prevented from approaching him after being taken in police custody. “This is a violation of his constitutional law,” Senator GO, an ally of Duterte told reporters.

ICC that proves mass kills during Dutete’s drug repression

ICC has investigated mass killing in Fractures supervised by Duterte When he held the position of mayor of Davao in southern Philippine and later as president. Estimates regarding the death of repression during Duterte’s presidential mandate vary, from over 6,000 that the national police reported up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.

The arrest warrant of the ICC, seen by the Associated Press, said that “there are reasonable reasons to believe that” the attack on the victims “has been both widespread and systematic: the attack took place for a few years and thousands of people seem to have been killed.”

The arrest of Duterte was necessary “to ensure its appearance before the court,” said the mandate on March 7. “Aware of the risk resulting in interference with the investigations and security of witnesses and victims, the room is satisfied that the arrest of Mr. Dutterte is necessary.”

In a short statement after the plane took off, ICC confirmed that one of his pre-process cameras issued an arrest warrant for the charges of “murder, as a crime against humanity, alleged in the Philippines, between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019.”

Families of Critics killed and Duterte celebrate arrest

The arrest and fall of Dutete led families of victims killed by his repression to tears. Some gathered in a street rally to meet their arrest.

“This is a big day, long awaited for justice,” said Randy Delos Santos. His teenager was shot by police on a Dark Riverside alley during an anti-drug operation in the suburban Calooocan city in August 2017.

“We hope that the top police officials and the hundreds of policemen who have been involved in illegal killing should also be placed in arrest and punished,” said Delos Santos.

Three policemen were convicted in 2018 for the high profile killing of his nephew, Kian Delos Santos, which caused Duterte to temporarily suspend his repression.

The conviction was one of the approximately three so far against the law enforcement forces in the anti-drug campaign. Former Senator Antonio Trillanes, who led to a complaint against Dutete in front of the ICC, said that the arrest was historical, a major blow to the state impunity and tyranny.

“This is like the fall of an emperor,” Trillanes told AP. “The next step now is to make sure that all his followers who have committed criminal transgressions that he should be kept in mind.”

The government said the former 79 -year -old leader is in good health and was examined by government doctors.

Dutete’s government tried to quit the ICC investigation

The ICC began to investigate the killing of drugs under the dubles from November 1, 2011, when he was still mayor of Davao, until March 16, 2019, as possible crimes against humanity. Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Statute in Rome, the founding treaty of the Court, in a movement, human rights activists say that it had the purpose of escaping responsibility.

The Dutete administration moved to suspend the global court investigation at the end of 2021, claiming that the Filipino authorities were already Looking at the same accusationsArguing ICC – an instance of the latest solution – it had no competence.

The judges of appeal to the ICC decided in 2023 that the investigation could resume and rejected the objections of the durable administration. Based in Hague, the Netherlands, ICC can enter when countries do not want or cannot follow suspects in the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded in 2022, decided not to return to the global court. But Marcos administration He said he would cooperate if the ICC has asked the International Police to take Duterte in arrest by a so-called red notification, a request for law enforcement agencies to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect.

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Press journalists associates Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila in Manila, Philippines, and Mike Corder and Molly Quell La Haga, the Netherlands, contributed to this report.

Originally published: March 10, 2025 at 22:25 CDT