Philippine ex-leader Duterte is being flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine police arrested former President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila on Tuesday and sent him by plane to the Netherlands to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, President Ferdinand Marcos said.

The global court in The Hague had ordered Duterte’s arrest through Interpol after accusing him of crimes against humanity over deadly anti-drug crackdowns he oversaw while in office, Marcos said in a late-night news conference. Duterte had been arrested at the Manila international airport Tuesday morning when he arrived with his family from Hong Kong.

Walking slowly with a cane, the 79-year-old former president turned briefly to a small group of aides and supporters, who wept and bid him goodbye, before an escort helped him into the plane.

His daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, said she sought entry to the airbase where her father was held but was refused. She criticized the Marcos administration for surrendering her father to a foreign court which currently has no jurisdiction to the Philippines.

Marcos said Duterte’s arrest was "proper and correct" and not an act of political persecution, since the Philippines is a member of Interpol.

Among the most feared leaders in Asia while in power, Duterte became the first ex-leader from the region to be arrested by the global court.

Clad in a dark jacket, an irate Duterte protested his arrest after arrival in Manila and asked authorities the legal basis of his detention. His lawyers immediately asked the Supreme Court to block any attempt to transport him out of the Philippines.

"Show to me now the legal basis for my being here," Duterte asked authorities in remarks captured on video by his daughter, Veronica Duterte, who posted the footage on social media. "You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.”

The surprise arrest sparked a commotion at the airport, where Duterte’s lawyers and aides protested that they, along with a doctor, were prevented from coming close to him after he was taken into police custody. "This is a violation of his constitutional right," Sen. Bong Go, a close Duterte ally, told reporters.

ICC probes killings during drug crackdown

The ICC has been investigating mass killings in crackdowns overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president. Estimates of the death toll of the crackdown during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.

The ICC arrest warrant, seen by The Associated Press, said "there are reasonable grounds to believe that” the attack on victims “was both widespread and systematic: the attack took place over a period of several years and thousands people appear to have been killed."

Duterte's arrest was necessary "to ensure his appearance before the court," the March 7 warrant said. “Mindful of the resultant risk of interference with the investigations and the security of witnesses and victims, the chamber is satisfied that the arrest of Mr. Duterte is necessary."

In a brief statement after the plane had taken off, the ICC confirmed that one of its pre-trial chambers had issued an arrest warrant for Duterte on charges of "murder as a crime against humanity allegedly committed in the Philippines between Nov. 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019."

Families of the slain celebrate the arrest

Duterte’s arrest and downfall drove families of slain victims of his crackdown to tears. Some gathered in a street rally to welcome his arrest.

“This is a big, long-awaited day for justice," Randy delos Santos told the AP. His teenage nephew was gunned down by police in a dark riverside alley during an anti-drug operation in suburban Caloocan city in August 2017.

“We hope that top police officials and the hundreds of police officers who were involved in the illegal killings should also be placed in custody and punished," delos Santos said.

Three police officers were convicted in 2018 for the high-profile murder of his nephew, Kian delos Santos, prompting Duterte to suspend his crackdown temporarily.

The conviction was one of only around three so far against law enforcers involved in the anti-drugs campaign. Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes, who led the filing of a complaint against Duterte before the ICC, said the arrest was historic, a major blow to state impunity and tyranny.

"This is like the downfall of an emperor," Trillanes told the AP. "The next step now is to make sure that all his followers who have committed criminal transgressions like him should also be held to account."

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

Duterte’s government tried to block ICC probe

The ICC began investigating drug killings under Duterte from Nov. 1, 2011, when he was still mayor of Davao, to March 16, 2019, as possible crimes against humanity. Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty, in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability.

The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court's investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing the ICC - a court of last resort - therefore didn't have jurisdiction.

Appeals judges at the ICC ruled in 2023 the investigation could resume and rejected the Duterte administration's objections. Based in The Hague, the Netherlands, the ICC can step in when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects in the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte in 2022, has decided not to rejoin the global court. But the Marcos administration had said it would cooperate if the ICC asked international police to take Duterte into custody through a so-called Red Notice, a request for law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect.