HONG KONG — Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested Tuesday, the Philippine government said, on an Interpol arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court amid accusations that he committed crimes against humanity during his deadly war on drugs.
Duterte, 79, who left office in 2022, was arrested at the international airport in Manila after his arrival from Hong Kong.
Rights groups say tens of thousands of unarmed suspects were murdered in extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s crackdown on narcotics dealers, allegations he has denied.
Duterte, who is in custody now, is in good health, the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement Tuesday.
Salvador Panelo, a former lawyer and spokesperson for Duterte during his presidency, said in a statement that Duterte’s arrest was unlawful and that he has no legal representation, Reuters reported.
Though the Philippines has not been a member of the International Criminal Court since it withdrew under Duterte in 2019, Marcos previously said his government would cooperate if Duterte’s arrest were sought by international police.
Duterte’s unannounced trip to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, which is also not a member of the court, had raised speculation that he might be trying to evade arrest. But he said Sunday that he would accept the warrant if issued.
“What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life for the Filipino people,” Duterte told thousands of Filipino workers at a campaign rally in Hong Kong ahead of Philippine midterm elections in May.
The rally was also attended by his daughter, current Vice President Sara Duterte.
The ICC’s investigation into the drug-related killings spans from 2011, when Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao, to the country’s withdrawal from the court in 2019, a move that activists said was an effort to avoid accountability.
The court says it has jurisdiction in the Philippines over crimes that were allegedly committed before its withdrawal from the court.
According to official government figures, 6,201 people were killed during “anti-drug operations” from the time Duterte became president in 2016 until 2021, almost all of them drug sellers or users who resisted arrest during raids.
Rights groups in the Philippines and others say those figures do not include thousands of others who were killed by police officers, agents of the police or unidentified assailants, including scores of children “who were either specifically targeted or were inadvertently shot during anti-drug raids, what authorities have called ‘collateral damage,’” according to Human Rights Watch.
ICC prosecutors say an estimated 12,000 to 30,000 people were killed in connection with Duterte’s war on drugs from 2016 to 2019, although the precise number is “difficult to ascertain.”
Police have denied any involvement in these additional deaths and rejected accusations of executions and cover-ups.
Only a handful of Philippine law enforcement officials have been convicted in connection with drug war deaths, prompting families of victims to seek justice internationally by filing a complaint with the ICC in 2018.
The ICC, based in The Hague, the Netherlands, is a court of last resort that prosecutes genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when countries are unwilling or unable to do so.
The ICC suspended its investigation in late 2021 after the Philippines said that it was already investigating the same allegations and that the ICC therefore had no jurisdiction. Appeals judges at the ICC rejected that argument in July 2023, ruling that the court inquiry could proceed.
In November, the Philippines — whose president, Marcos, has feuded with Duterte as well as his own vice president, Duterte’s daughter — said for the first time that it would be obliged to comply if Interpol were to seek the elder Duterte’s arrest.
