Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested upon arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on Tuesday (March 11) local time, following a trip from Hong Kong. He was immediately taken to a detention facility for questioning.
The arrest was made on the basis of a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has been investigating his policies in the war on drugs. The campaign has resulted in numerous deaths, especially among the poor.
The Philippine presidential office confirmed that Duterte would be handed over to an ICC member state before being transferred to the court's headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. The Office of the President also assured that Duterte was in good health following his arrest.
Duterte had previously expressed his willingness to be arrested if the ICC issued a warrant. However, his trip to Hong Kong before the incident sparked speculation that he was trying to evade arrest.
The ICC has long been investigating thousands of killings linked to Duterte’s drug war since 2016. The official inquiry began in 2021, covering cases from 2011—when Duterte was still the mayor of Davao—until 2019, before the Philippines formally withdrew from the ICC.
Meanwhile, Duterte's former spokesman, Salvador Panelo, condemned the arrest as illegal, while international human rights groups hailed it as a step toward justice.
The Fall of Rodrigo Duterte
A day after taking office in mid-2016, Duterte launched "Project Double Barrel", an aggressive anti-drug operation. He repeatedly called for the execution of drug suspects without due process, even comparing himself to Hitler.
This policy led to thousands of deaths in police operations and attacks by masked assailants widely believed to be security forces. The government recorded 6,248 deaths as of April 2022, while human rights groups estimated the number to be as high as 30,000.
Concerns about extrajudicial executions prompted the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation in 2018. In response, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, but the court retained jurisdiction over crimes committed while the country was still a member.
Initially, Duterte enjoyed broad public support in the Philippines, and his daughter Sara Duterte was elected vice president in 2022. However, tensions between the Duterte family and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. escalated, especially after the Philippine government declared in 2024 that it would not obstruct an ICC warrant for Duterte's arrest.
The conflict culminated in February 2025, when Sara Duterte was impeached for alleged corruption and Rodrigo Duterte was charged with threatening to kill Marcos Jr. Without government interference, the ICC proceeded with its case. Thousands of security forces were deployed in anticipation of unrest, leading to Duterte's eventual arrest.
