Duterte – I did what was right for my country.
Tue 8:33 am +00:00, 11 Mar 2025 5Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested at Manila’s airport on ICC orders, the government confirmed. Duterte, returning from Hong Kong, faces crimes against humanity charges linked to his anti-drug campaign’s alleged mass killings, according to President Ferdinand Marcos’ office.
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested Tuesday in Manila by police acting on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant citing crimes against humanity tied to his deadly war on drugs.
The 79-year-old faces a charge of “the crime against humanity of murder”, according to the ICC, for a crackdown in which rights groups estimate tens of thousands of mostly poor men were killed by officers and vigilantes, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
“Early in the morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC,” the presidential palace said in a statement.
“As of now, he is under the custody of authorities.”
The statement added that “the former president and his group are in good health and are being checked by government doctors”.
Duterte was arrested after landing at Manila’s international airport following a brief trip to Hong Kong.
Speaking to thousands of overseas Filipino workers there on Sunday, the former president decried the investigation, labelling ICC investigators “sons of whores” while saying he would “accept it” if an arrest were to be his fate.
The Philippines quit the ICC in 2019 on Duterte’s instructions, but the tribunal maintained it had jurisdiction over killings before the pullout, as well as killings in the southern city of Davao when Duterte was mayor there, years before he became president.
It launched a formal inquiry in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes.
The case resumed in July 2023 after a five-judge panel rejected the Philippines’ objection that the court lacked jurisdiction.
Since then, the government of President Ferdinand Marcos has on numerous instances said it would not cooperate with the investigation.
Duterte is still hugely popular among many in the Philippines who supported his quick-fix solutions to crime, and he remains a potent political force. He is running to reclaim his job as mayor of his stronghold Davao in the May mid-term election.
Charges have been filed locally in a handful of cases related to drug operations that led to deaths, only nine police have been convicted for slaying alleged drug suspects.
A self-professed killer, Duterte told officers to fatally shoot narcotics suspects if their lives were at risk and insisted the crackdown saved families and prevented the Philippines from turning into a “narco-politics state”.
At the opening of a Philippine Senate probe into the drug war in October, Duterte said he offered “no apologies, no excuses” for his actions.
“I did what I had to do, and whether or not you believe it or not, I did it for my country,” he said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte arrested on ICC warrant
TAP
Highly controversial actions when he was President. He turned the country from a drug infested basketcase into a place of hope – for a while. The country’s infratsructure was greatly improved.by cooperation with China.
The US launched a Moslem war against him at Marawi in Mindanao which he fought and won.
The new President Bong Bong Marcos (son of Ferdinand) is sold out to the US and is having all the US bases returned when the Philippines had under Duterte been freed from its former colonial masters.
This makes confrontation between China and the PHilippines inevitable where Duterte would have avoided conflict through negotiation.
Duterte (Digong his nickname with Filipinos) calls the ICC judges ‘sons of whores’.
He is a very brave man, who does what he believes is right.
I agree with you, Tap. People like him are never arrested because of possibly criminal activity, but because they are too much of a threat to the ruling elite.
The hypocrisy of it all.
How many lives did the drug-lords and gang members kill in the Philippines?
How many Filipino lives were effected by the loss of loved ones on account of drug-gang killings, let alone the ruined lives from drug addiction, yet the ICC arrest Duterte for taking action to eradicate the evil scourge from the Philippines.
On the other hand.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza in November 2024.
The ICC accused Netanyahu and Gallant of depriving Gaza’s civilian population of essential resources such as food, water, medicine, and electricity, leading to widespread suffering and deaths. Netanyahu then has the gall to step off the plane and
deliver a speech to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress on July 24, 2024, where he vowed to achieve “total victory” against Hamas and criticized American opponents of the war in Gaza as “idiots”. Netanyahu’s speech did not offer any political vision for ending the conflict beyond a security alliance with some Arab countries, ignoring the core issues such as the fifty-seven-year-long occupation and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
In my book Duterte did right by addressing the problem while the Jewish state did wrong by causing the problem.
ICC is under Roman Statute Law – the Vatican Jesuits control it for their own ends – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Statute
He should have ripped the Synagogue of Satan Catholic whore out of the country while he had the chance – the Jesuits will have their revenge on him.
Nothing surer!