- Duterte served an interpol arrest warrant at Manila’s main airport.
- Arrest made on the CPI request concerning Extrajudicial killings.
- Int’l Body has no competence on the Philippines: the ex-legal aid of Duterte.
Manila: The former president of the Fire-Brand of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested Tuesday at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) marking a key development in the investigation concerning thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings in a “war against drugs” which defined his presidency.
The “war against drugs” was Duterte’s signing campaign policy which swept the Maverick, the mayor who had power in power in 2016, reflecting the promises he made during vitriolaic speeches to kill thousands of narcotic drugs.
Duterte, 79, has repeatedly defended the repression. He denies having commanded the murders of drug suspects and said that he had asked the police to kill only in self-defense.
However, the former president received an interpol arrest warrant when he arrived at Manila’s main airport and was in detention, the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement.
The arrest follows years of Duterte taunting the ICC because it unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the founding treaty of the Court in 2019 when it began to examine the allegations of systematic extrajudicial murders on its watch.
The Philippines had until last year refused to cooperate with an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity by the ICC, which affirms that it has jurisdiction to investigate incidents while a country is a member.
In a video published on Instagram of the girl Veronica Duterte of her guard at Manila’s air base in Villamor, Duterte questioned the reason for her arrest.
“What is the law and what is the crime I have committed?” he said in the video. We didn’t know who he was talking to.
“I have been brought here not of my own will, it is that of someone else. You must respond now for the deprivation of freedom.”
Death of Slumland
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed in anti-drug operations which, according to them, ended with shootings. But activists say that the real assessment of repression was much greater, with thousands of Slumland drug users, many of whom were included on official “surveillance lists, killed in mysterious circumstances.
Police denies their participation in these murders and rejects the allegations of groups of systematic execution and concealation rights.
The media earlier showed Dutterte video sequences dressed in a jacket and a scratched polo shirt and a walk with a corridor at the airport at his return from Hong Kong on Tuesday, accompanied by police in criminal investigation and a detection group and uniform officers nearby.
The ally of Duterte and former legal adviser Salvador Painlo said that the arrest was illegal and that the police had denied the former presidential representation.
“The ICC’s arrest warrant comes from a parasitic source, the ICC, which has no competence on the Philippines,” Pantelo said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch described the arrest “a critical stage of responsibility in the Philippines” and said that the authorities should quickly put Duterte to the ICC.
“His arrest could bring the victims and their families closer to justice and send the clear message that no one is above the law,” he said in a statement.
