Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested yesterday in Manila by police acting on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant 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 that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
As of yesterday evening he was still being held at the capital’s Villamor Air Base, according to his political party, while Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said that there were plans to swiftly transfer him to The Hague, Netherlands.
Photo: AP
“As I write this, he is being forcibly taken to The Hague tonight. This is not justice — this is oppression and persecution,” Duterte’s eldest daughter said in a statement.
The former president had earlier gone on Instagram to say he believed the Philippine Supreme Court would step in and prevent his transfer to the ICC.
“The Supreme Court will not agree to that. We do not have an extradition treaty,” he said after his lawyers filed a petition with the court.
Duterte was arrested at the airport after “Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC,” the Philippine presidential palace said in a statement.
In an earlier video, Duterte had demanded to know the basis of his arrest.
“So what is the law and what is the crime that I committed? Show to me now the legal basis of my being here,” he said.
Duterte’s former chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, criticized his detention as “unlawful.”
“The [police] didn’t allow one of his lawyers to meet him at the airport and to question the legal basis for [the] arrest,” Panelo said.
Reactions from those who opposed Duterte’s drug war were jubilant.
One group working to support mothers of those killed in the crackdown called the arrest a “very welcome development.”
“The mothers whose husbands and children were killed because of the drug war are very happy because they have been waiting for this for a very long time,” said Rubilyn Litao, coordinator for Rise Up for Life and for Rights.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
RSS