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March 11, 2025 | 11:55 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, after landing at Manila International Airport. As reported by Channel NewsAsia, Duterte was arrested by police acting on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant following his deadly war on drugs, the presidential palace said.
"Early in the morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC," the palace said in a statement.
"As of now, he is under the custody of authorities."
The Philippine president's office also said that Duterte is in "good health."
Duterte was arrested after landing from a flight from Hong Kong, where he said on Monday that he was ready to be arrested if the ICC issued a warrant.
Speculation was rife on Sunday that Duterte's sudden visit to Hong Kong indicated an attempt to evade possible arrest for his tough actions against drug traffickers while in power.
The ICC has been investigating a large number of killings by police and armed individuals under the former president's aggressive stance on illegal drugs. This has resulted in thousands of suspects, mostly poor, being killed.
Duterte's "war on drugs" was a signature policy after he took office in 2016, vowing to kill drug traffickers.
Human rights groups claim that Philippine police, with Duterte's backing, executed unarmed drug suspects on a large scale, allegations that authorities have denied.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's office, as reported by Reuters, said they have received an official copy of the ICC warrant, which was served to Duterte by the police. Duterte is now in custody, Marcos said in a statement.
Duterte's former legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, said the arrest violated the law, alleging that the police did not allow his lawyers to meet Duterte at the airport.
Duterte unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC establishment agreement in 2019, when the court started to investigate allegations of systematic unlawful killings. The Philippines refused to cooperate with the ICC investigation until last year.
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during the anti-drug operation, which they say culminated in shootouts. But activists claim the actual toll from the crackdown is much higher, with thousands of drug users in slums, many on official watch lists, killed in mysterious circumstances.
Philippine police denied involvement in the killings and rejected accusations from human rights groups of systematic and cover-up executions.
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