A plane carrying the former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has left Manila after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity over his deadly “war on drugs”.
He was taken into police custody shortly after his arrival at the capital’s international airport from Hong Kong on Tuesday morning.
Duterte, 79, contested his detention but within hours was on a chartered jet en route to The Hague in the Netherlands, where the ICC sits. Current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the country was meeting its legal obligations.
During Duterte’s time in office, thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial.
Marcos said his predecessor would face charges relating to what he described as Duterte’s “bloody war on drugs”.
“Interpol asked for help and we obliged,” President Marcos told a press conference. “This is what the international community expects of us.”
Duterte’s daughter Sara, who said she would accompany him to The Hague, is vice president and a political rival of Marcos. She has said the arrest amounts to persecution.
Rodrigo Duterte has offered no apologies for his brutal anti-drugs crackdown, which saw more than 6,000 suspects killed when he was president from 2016 to 2022, and mayor of Davao city before that.
Nevertheless, he questioned the basis for the warrant, asking: “What crime [have] I committed?” in a video posted online on Tuesday by another daughter, Veronica Duterte.
“If I committed a sin, prosecute me in Philippine courts, with Filipino judges, and I will allow myself to be jailed in my own nation,” he said in a later video.
In response to his arrest, a petition was launched on his behalf in the Supreme Court – urging it not to comply with the request.
According to a statement from the court’s spokesperson, the former president also called for a declaration that the Philippines withdrawal from the ICC in 2019 “effectively terminated” its jurisdiction over the country and its people.
The ICC says it still has authority in the Philippines over alleged crimes committed before the country withdrew as a member.
