Ex-President Duterte of the Philippines will be charged with murder before the ICC for drug war murders

A plane transporting former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court to address charges related to his violent “war on drugs” departed for Rotterdam on Wednesday, following a delay of several hours during a layover in Dubai.

Duterte, who governed the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was apprehended early on Tuesday in Manila, representing a significant advancement in the ICC’s investigation into purported crimes against humanity linked to an anti-drugs campaign that resulted in thousands of deaths and garnered global condemnation.

Duterte, 79, may become the first former Asian head of state to face trial at the ICC in The Hague.

The ICC’s warrant for his arrest states that during his presidency, Duterte established, financed, and equipped “death squads” in his campaign against drugs, which executed killings of alleged drug users and dealers.

In the days ahead, he will appear before a judge, where the allegations will be presented in court. Prosecutors allege that he committed crimes against humanity through systematic attacks resulting in numerous murders.

An anonymous source at the ICC indicated that the plane transporting the former president to Rotterdam, the airport for The Hague, had departed from Dubai, a detail also corroborated by flight tracker websites.

The plane was initially scheduled to land in the Netherlands at approximately 0600 GMT, but tracking service Flightradar 24 indicated a revised arrival time of around 1613 GMT.

Duterte sought medical attention while in Dubai during the layover. ABS-CBN News, a Philippine broadcaster, displayed images on its website depicting police doctors attending to Duterte while he rested on an airplane bed.

A representative from the Philippine National Police stated that the medical checks were standard procedures involving “regular vital signs and monitoring”.

‘WE ARE FINALLY ACHIEVING JUSTICE’

Approximately 20 protesters opposing Duterte assembled on Wednesday outside the ICC, holding banners and wearing a mask that portrayed him as a vampire. A small group of pro-Duterte demonstrators assembled at the courthouse in The Hague.
For the families of victims of the Philippine drug war, Duterte’s arrest has reignited their hopes for justice.

“I was taken aback and felt as though I had been revived because what we have been striving for is finally materializing – we are at last achieving justice for our loved ones who were taken from us,” said Jerica Ann Pico, the widow of a man who was killed during the war on drugs.

Sara Duterte, the vice president of the country and daughter of the former president, took a morning flight to Amsterdam, according to a statement from her office. However, the statement did not disclose her purpose for the trip or the duration of her stay in the Netherlands.

The ICC’s press office chose not to provide a comment. A lawyer representing Duterte has yet to respond to a request for comment. Dubai officials have yet to respond to a request for comment.

CAMPAIGN PLATFORM SIGNATURE

During a press conference on Tuesday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr announced that the plane transporting Duterte was headed to The Hague, stating that this would enable the former president “to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs”.

The war on drugs served as the defining campaign platform that propelled the unpredictable Duterte to power in 2016. In the span of six years in office, the police reported that 6,200 suspects were killed in anti-drug operations.

Activists assert that the actual toll was significantly higher, with many thousands of additional slum drug users killed under unclear circumstances, some of whom appeared on community “watch lists” after enrolling in treatment.

Silvestre Bello, a former labor minister and one of the lawyers for the former president, stated that a legal team would convene to evaluate options and gain clarity on the location where Duterte would be taken and whether they would have access to him.

Veronica, the youngest daughter of Duterte, intends to submit a habeas corpus petition to the Philippine Supreme Court, seeking to compel the government to return him, according to Salvador Panelo, his former chief legal counsel.

The arrest signifies a remarkable shift in the fortunes of the powerful Duterte family, which forged a strong alliance with Marcos to secure a significant victory in the 2022 election.

However, Marcos and his vice president have experienced a significant rift, which reached a peak last month when Sara Duterte was impeached by a lower house dominated by Marcos’s loyalists.