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The former Filipino Duterte president addresses the Hague to face positions from the ICC linked to the ‘War on Drugs’

The former Filipino Duterte president addresses the Hague to face positions from the ICC linked to the ‘War on Drugs’

Sakege08 mins

Mike Corder
| Associated press

Hague, Netherlands – The former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, was transferred to the Netherlands on Wednesday to face a position of international criminal crimes against humanity linked to mortal repression against drugs he supervised while he was in office.

The arrest of Duterte, 79, on Tuesday by an order issued by the global court was acclaimed by human rights groups and families of victims as a great advance and step towards the tip of impunity.

The flight tracking data showed that after leaving Manila, the plane that transported Duterte waited for hours in Dubai before taking off again, apparently went to Rotterdam the Hague Airport. The court did not comment on the flight, but the president of Filipino, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said Tuesday that the police arrested Duterte when he returned from a trip to Hong Kong and sent him to the ICC.

When arriving in the Netherlands, they will take him to the Court’s detention unit inside a Dutch prison complex near the North Sea coast.

The rights groups and the families of the victims welcomed the arrest.

“This is a monumental and old step for justice for thousands of victims and their families,” said Jerrie Abella of Amnesty International.

“Therefore, it is also a hopeful sign for them, in the Philippines and beyond, since it shows that the alleged perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, will face justice where they are in the world,” Abella added.

Emily Soriano, the mother of a victim of repressions, said she wanted more officials to face justice.

“Duterte is lucky that he has due process, but our children who were killed did not have due process,” he said.

Duterte’s supporters, however, criticized their arrest as illegal and tried to return home. Small groups of supporters of Duterte and people who supported their arrest demonstrated on Wednesday outside the court before arrival.

CPI research

The ICC opened an investigation in 2021 on mass murders linked to the so -called war on drugs supervised by Duterte when he served as mayor of the city of southern Davao and later as president.

Estimates of the death toll during the presidential term of Duterte vary, from the more than 6,000 that the National Police has reported and up to 30,000 human rights groups.

The CPI judges who analyzed the prosecution evidence that support their request for their arrest found “reasonable reasons to believe that Mr. Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder” as an “indirect coperperator for having supervised the murders when he was mayor of Davao and later president of the Philippines,” according to his order.

What happens later?

A few days after being arrested at the Court’s detention Center, Duterte will be taken to the Court for a hearing. The judges will confirm their identity, verify that he understands the charges against him and will establish a date for an hearing known as a confirmation of charges in which a panel of judges prior to the trial will evaluate whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to send it to a complete trial.

Duterte could challenge the court jurisdiction and the admissibility of the case. While the Philippines is no longer a member of the ICC, the alleged crimes occurred before Manila retired from the court.

That process will probably take months and if the case advances for the trial, it could take years. Duterte may request the provisional release of the Court’s arrest center while waiting, although it depends on the judges to decide whether to grant such a request.

Duterte’s legal advisor, Salvador Panayo, told reporters in Manila that the Supreme Court of the Philippines “can force the Government to bring back the person arrested and detained without probable cause and force the government to bring them to the court and explain why (the government) did what they did.”

Marcos said Tuesday that Duterte’s arrest was “appropriate and correct” and not an act of political persecution.

Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, criticized Marcos’s administration for giving her father a foreign court that currently does not have a jurisdiction to the Philippines.

The Philippines is no longer a Member State of the CPI.

Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the ICC, in a movement, according to human rights activists, aimed to escape responsibility.

The Duterte administration moved to suspend the investigation of the global court at the end of 2021 by arguing that the Philippine authorities were already investigating the same accusations, arguing that the CPI, a last resort court, therefore, had no jurisdiction.

The CPI appeals judges rejected those arguments and ruled in 2023 that the investigation could resume.

The Judges of the ICC who issued the order also said that the alleged crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the Court. They said that Duterte’s arrest was necessary due to what they called the “risk of interference with the investigations and safety of witnesses and victims.”

Aleksandar Furtula in The Hague, Joeal Calupitan and Basilio Sepe in Manila, Philippines and Jerry Harmer in Bangkok, contributed to this report.

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