Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was taken into custody in Manila on Tuesday following an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over allegations of crimes against humanity related to his violent anti-drug campaign.
Duterte, 79, was arrested at Manila's international airport upon returning from Hong Kong, according to a statement from the Philippine presidential palace. "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 statement said.
A video circulated by broadcaster GMA appeared to show Duterte being detained aboard a plane. "You will just have to kill me. I won't allow you to take the side of the white foreigners," he said in defiance.
Duterte's arrest follows years of international scrutiny over his deadly war on drugs, which began when he took office in 2016. Human rights groups estimate between 12,000 and 30,000 people were killed in extrajudicial operations, with the majority of victims being poor, unarmed men targeted in urban areas. The ICC's investigation covers alleged crimes from November 2011 to June 2016, when Duterte was mayor of Davao City, and his presidency until March 2019, when the Philippines withdrew from the ICC.
Leila de Lima, a former senator and staunch critic of Duterte's drug war who was jailed for over six years on what she says were fabricated charges, welcomed the arrest. "Today, Duterte is being made to answer - not to me, but to the victims, to their families, to a world that refuses to forget. This is not about vengeance. This is about justice finally taking its course," she said.
Human rights organizations also applauded the development. Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called Duterte's detention "a critical step for accountability in the Philippines" and urged the Philippine government to comply with ICC procedures. The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers, which represents families of drug war victims, said justice was "finally catching up" with the former president.
Despite the ICC warrant, Duterte's former spokesperson Harry Roque called the arrest unlawful. "The warrant of arrest has no basis because it was issued at a time when we are no longer a member of the ICC," Roque said in a Facebook livestream. "What is happening right now is unlawful detention." Salvador Panelo, Duterte's former legal counsel, claimed that police had prevented one of Duterte's lawyers from meeting him at the airport.
The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in 2022 after running on a joint ticket with Duterte's daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, has stated that it would comply with an ICC request for international police to take Duterte into custody. The political alliance between the Duterte and Marcos families has since fractured, leading to speculation that Duterte's arrest may be politically motivated.
Duterte's tenure was marked by his tough-on-crime rhetoric and controversial remarks about law enforcement. While serving as mayor of Davao City before becoming president, he publicly boasted about running a "death squad" that targeted criminals. In 2016, shortly after his election, he declared that suspected drug users and dealers would be killed, once saying that there would be so many bodies in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them.
The former leader has long defended his actions, telling a Senate inquiry in 2024, "I did what I had to do, and whether you believe it or not, I did it for my country." At the same hearing, he admitted to instructing police officers to encourage criminals to fight back so that authorities could justify killing them.
