Photo courtesy: Presidential Communications Office
IN a surprising development in the years-long investigation into his bloody drug war, former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on Tuesday, March 11, over an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Malacañang confirmed the news on a Facebook post, saying that Interpol Manila received a copy of the arrest warrant for the 79-year-old chief executive, who just returned to the country from his Hong Kong trip.
Duterte becomes the first former Philippine president to be arrested by the international tribunal for crimes against humanity allegedly committed under his administration’s anti-drug campaign that killed thousands.
He was brought to the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City where he questioned the legality of the ICC’s arrest warrant, asking why he was deprived of liberty. Former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, who came with Duterte, stressed that the former president had no idea what the charges were.
He also reminded authorities that the Philippines is no longer a member-state of the ICC. Duterte’s allies have been insisting on this, saying that the ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
But what exactly is the ICC’s role? Does it really not have the power to investigate extrajudicial killings (EJKs) linked to Duterte’s drug war?
The Philippines became a member of the ICC on November 1, 2011, being the 117th state party to the Rome Statute.
The Rome Statute is a treaty that established the ICC in 2002, making it the first permanent international criminal court whose mission is to investigate and prosecute individuals charged with the four gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
In 2016, former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expressed concern over the reported EJKs of alleged drug dealers and users in the country, which, at the time, led to over 3,000 deaths.
The Duterte administration was known for its infamous drug war, with the former president threatening to “kill” those involved in the illegal drug trade.
The Philippines was still a state party to the ICC in 2016, thus, Bensouda highlighted the tribunal court’s jurisdiction over the four main crimes that could be committed in the country. However, Duterte threatened to withdraw from the ICC in the same year, calling the judicial body “useless.”
In 2017, Filipino lawyer Jude Sabio filed a complaint against Duterte before the ICC for the alleged “mass murder” in the country. Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and former Magdalo party-list representative Gary Alejano later filed a supplemental communication with the ICC, urging the international tribunal to conduct a preliminary examination on Duterte’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs.
It did not take years for the ICC to act after Trillanes and Alejano submitted their 45-page communication, which included the list of killings that transpired after Sabio submitted his first communication to the tribunal court in April 2017.
February 2018: The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC confirmed that it would open a preliminary examination into alleged crimes against humanity under Duterte’s “war on drugs.” Bensouda said the move came “following a careful, independent and impartial review of a number of communications and reports documenting alleged crimes.”
March 2018: Duterte announced the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC “effective immediately,” citing “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” against him and his administration. But Article 127 of the Rome Statute states that withdrawal is only effective “one year after the date of receipt of the notification.”
March 2019: The Philippines officially left the ICC. This, however, did not hinder the tribunal court from pursuing its examination into the possible crimes against humanity in Duterte’s drug war.
December 2020: The ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor said it found “reasonable basis” to believe that crimes against humanity were committed in the Philippines in connection with the war on drugs, which occurred between at least July 1, 2016 and March 16, 2019, a day before the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC took effect.
September 2021: The ICC pre-trial chamber authorizes the commencement of the investigation of crimes committed in the country between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019. The investigation included killings allegedly made by the so-called Davao Death Squad when Duterte was still a Davao City mayor.
November 2021: The tribunal court temporarily suspended its probe into the drug war, after the Philippines requested the ICC to defer to its government’s investigations and proceedings. But ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, who succeeded Bensouda, said his office would continue its “analysis of information already in its possession and any new information it may receive from third parties.”
January 2023: The ICC pre-trial chamber greenlighted the reopening of the investigation into Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign, saying it was “not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle.”
February 2023: The Philippine government, through Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, filed a notice of appeal asking the ICC to reverse its earlier decision that allowed Khan to pursue the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity.
March 2023: However, the Appeals Chamber of the ICC junked the Philippine government’s request, noting “the absence of persuasive reasons” that would warrant the suspension of the previous ruling.
November 2023: President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said his administration was studying the possibility of the country’s return as a member-state to the ICC.
January 2024: Marcos Jr. maintained that the Philippine government would not cooperate with the ICC in its investigation into the drug war. However, he clarified that they would not block the ICC if Duterte wanted to be investigated.
May 2024: Trillanes said he expected a warrant of arrest to be issued for Duterte in connection to the ICC probe by June or July.
January 2025: Malacañang said it would “respond favorably” to the ICC’s request to arrest a person in relation to its probe into the drug war if coursed through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin noted that a request from the ICC, enforced through Interpol, should not be ignored.
March 2025: Returning from his trip to Hong Kong, Duterte was arrested on March 11, on a warrant issued by the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity. After spending time at the Villamor Air Base, Duterte boarded a plane bound for The Hague, Netherlands on Tuesday evening. The aircraft RP-C5219—carrying Duterte and Medialdea, among others—took off at 11:03 p.m.
In a late-night press conference, Marcos Jr. said Duterte’s arrest was done because Interpol “asked for help” and the Philippine government has to fulfill “commitments” to them.
“If we don’t do that, they will no longer help us with other cases involving Filipino fugitives abroad,” Marcos Jr. explained. “This is what the international community expects of us as the leader of a democratic country that is part of the community of nations.”
While the Philippines is no longer a member of the ICC, it does not mean that the tribunal court has no jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in the country before its withdrawal in 2019.
The ICC continues to investigate the EJKs related to the drug war as these occurred when the country was still a state party to the Rome Statute. Under Article 127 of the treaty, a country’s withdrawal shall not be discharged from “the obligations arising from this Statute while it was a party to the Statute.”
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) reported in 2022 that more than 6,000 people were killed during the Duterte administration’s anti-drug crackdown since July 2016. The number was small compared to the estimated death toll of the ICC which ranged from 12,000 to 30,000 between 2016 to 2019.
Based on a 2017 year-end report of the Duterte administration, there were 20,322 individuals killed in the war on drugs from July 2016 to November 2017. Of this number, 3,967 were killed in police operations, while 16,355 lost lives in vigilante-style killings.
Three of these cases, including that of 17-year-old student Kian delos Santos, resulted in convictions against law enforcers involved in the drug war.
In a previous post on X (formerly Twitter), Trillanes revealed the names of former officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who were tagged as “suspects” in the ICC’s investigation into the war on drugs. They are senator Bato dela Rosa, former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Romeo Caramat Jr., former National Police Commission (Napolcom) commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, and former PNP Intelligence Officer Eleazar Mata.
With Duterte’s arrest, some might be wondering what will happen to him next.
The ICC confirmed on Tuesday that it issued an arrest warrant for Duterte. ICC spokesman Fadi Abdullah said an initial appearance hearing will be scheduled once a suspect is in ICC custody.
According to the international tribunal, an arrested individual should be brought promptly “before the competent judicial authority in the custodial state, which determines whether the warrant is indeed for the arrested person, whether the person was arrested consistently with due process and whether the person’s rights have been respected.”
Once the order for surrender is issued, the arrested individual will be delivered to the court and held at the detention center in The Hague.
The suspect will appear before the court shortly after they arrive in The Hague. The Pre-Trial Chamber will confirm the suspect’s identity, ensure they understand the charges, confirm the language in which the proceedings should be conducted, and set a date to begin the confirmation of charges hearing.
After the hearing, the Pre-Trial Chamber may:
The trial will then take place in The Hague, unless otherwise decided. The accused should be present at their trial, which will be held publicly unless the Chamber decides to conduct a closed session.
Lawyer Kristina Conti, ICC assistant to Counsel, said in an interview that the average period of ICC trials is eight years.
Stay tuned to republicasia for more updates.
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