Philippine police have arrested former president Rodrigo Duterte after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity over his deadly “war on drugs.”
The 79-year-old was taken into custody shortly after arriving at Manila airport from Hong Kong.
Duterte has never apologized for his brutal anti-drug crackdown, which led to thousands of deaths during his presidency from 2016 to 2022 and his tenure as mayor of Davao City before that.
Upon his arrest, he challenged the warrant, asking, *”What crime have I committed?”*
Duterte’s former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo has slammed the arrest, calling it “unlawful” as the Philippines had withdrawn from the ICC in 2019.
The ICC earlier said that it has jurisdiction in the Philippines over alleged crimes committed before the country withdrew as a member.
But activists called the arrest a “historic moment” for those who perished in his drug war and their families, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines said.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but today, it has bent towards justice. Duterte’s arrest is the beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his brutal rule,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy.
Duterte had been in Hong Kong to campaign for the upcoming May 12 mid-term elections, where he had planned to run for mayor of Davao.
Footage aired on local television showed him walking out of the airport using a cane. Authorities say he is in “good health” and is being cared for by government doctors.
“What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life for the Filipino people,” he told a cheering crowd of Filipino expatriates before leaving Hong Kong.
A video posted by his daughter Veronica Duterte showed Duterte in custody in a lounge at Manila’s Villamor Air Base. In it, he can be heard questioning the reason for his arrest.
“What is the law and what is the crime that I committed? I was brought here not of my own volition, it is somebody else’s. You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.”
With fiery rhetoric, Duterte urged security forces to shoot drug suspects on sight. More than 6,000 people were killed by police or unknown assailants during his anti-drug campaign, though rights groups believe the actual number is much higher.
A UN report found that most victims were young, poor urban men. It also revealed that police—who were not required to have search or arrest warrants—systematically forced suspects to self-incriminate or face lethal force.
Critics argue the crackdown disproportionately targeted street-level dealers from impoverished communities while failing to take down high-level drug lords. Many families claim their loved ones—sons, brothers, or husbands—were simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Parliamentary investigations linked the killings to a shadowy “death squad” of bounty hunters targeting drug suspects, though Duterte has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
*”Do not question my policies because I offer no apologies, no excuses. I did what I had to do, and whether or not you believe it… I did it for my country,”* Duterte told a parliamentary inquiry in October.
*”I hate drugs, make no mistake about it.”*
The ICC first took note of alleged abuses in 2016 and formally launched an investigation in 2021, focusing on cases from November 2011—when Duterte was Davao’s mayor—until March 2019, shortly before the Philippines withdrew from the ICC.
### **‘Donald Trump of the East’**
Rodrigo Duterte remains popular in the Philippines, particularly as the first president from Mindanao, a southern region where many feel overlooked by Manila’s leadership. Unlike most national politicians, he frequently speaks in Cebuano, the regional language, rather than Tagalog, which is more commonly spoken in the capital and northern regions.
His fiery populist rhetoric and blunt remarks earned him the nickname *“Donald Trump of the East.”* He has openly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him his *“idol,”* and under his administration, the Philippines shifted its foreign policy away from its longtime ally, the U.S., in favor of closer ties with China.
Duterte’s daughter and political heir, Sara Duterte, currently serves as the country’s vice president and is widely seen as a strong contender for the presidency in 2028.
However, the Duterte family’s alliance with incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has unraveled in dramatic fashion. Though the two leaders won the 2022 elections in a landslide, their relationship soured soon after.
Marcos initially refused to cooperate with the ICC investigation, but as tensions with the Dutertes escalated, he shifted his stance, later signaling that the Philippines would comply.
It remains unclear whether Marcos would go as far as extraditing Duterte to stand trial in The Hague.
