Manila:
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday after landing at Manila’s international airport by police at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a major step in its investigation into thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings in a bloody “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.
“Early in the morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC. As of now, he is under the custody of authorities,” the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement.
The “war on drugs” was firebrand former leader Duterte’s signature campaign policy that swept the crime-busting mayor to power in 2016, delivering on promises he made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of narcotics dealers.
In a video posted on Instagram stories by his daughter Veronica Duterte from his custody at Manila’s Villamor Air Base, Duterte questioned the reason for his arrest.
“What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?” he said in the video. It was unclear who he was speaking to.
“I was brought here not of my own volition, it is somebody else’s. You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.”
Duterte’s “War On Drugs”
The arrest follows years of Duterte taunting the ICC since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court’s founding treaty in 2019 as it started looking into allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings on his watch. The Philippines had until last year refused to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation.
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations that they say ended in shootouts. But Duterte, 79, has repeatedly defended the crackdown, but insisted he was not responsible for any unlawful deaths. The former leader had denied ordering the murders of drug suspects and said he instructed police to kill only in self-defence.
However, according to rights groups, many thousands of other murders of mostly poor men remain unexplained, with ICC prosecutors placing the death figures at 12,000-30,000.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the European Union all criticised the controversial leader for bombastic statements he made that appeared to support the killing.
Duterte’s Remarks On Deaths And Drug War
As a presidential candidate, Duterte on March 16, 2016, said that he would eradicate drugs in the Philippines by killing so many dealers it would cause a boom for funeral businesses. “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful,” he said.
On June 30, 2016, hours after being sworn in as president, Duterte went to a Manila slum and urged residents to kill drug-addled neighbours. “This campaign (of) shoot-to-kill will remain until the last day of my term. I don’t care about human rights, believe me,” he said.
Duterte estimated on September 30, 2016 that there were three million drug addicts in the Philippines, adding that he would like them all dead. A year later, he said the figure had grown to four million despite his crackdown.
“I used to do it (kill) personally just to show to the guys that if I can do it, so can you,” he said.
On December 12, 2016, the former President boasted that he had murdered suspects when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao. “If you commit corruption, whoever you are, I will have you flown by helicopter to Manila and I will toss you out. I have done it before, why would not I do it again,” he said.
Duterte alludes to a past crime in explaining to typhoon survivors how he will take drastic measures against drugs and graft on December 27, 2016.
“You want to scare me by threatening to have me thrown in prison? International Criminal Court? Bullshit,” he said.
In October 2016, Duterte compared himself to Hitler. “If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have…,” he said, pausing and pointing to himself.“Hitler massacred three million Jews … there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”
On November 28, 2016, he bristles at ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s stark warning that any person who incites “mass violence” in the Philippines was “potentially liable to prosecution” at the world court.
“I don’t give a damn about being prosecuted in the ICC. Go ahead. It would be my pleasure to go to prison for my country. It would be a distinct honour for me, even if they don’t make me a hero, to die for my country,” he said.
(With Reuters and AFP inputs)