Former President Rodrigo Duterte arrested

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday morning upon arrival at the airport in the capital Manila. The presidential palace declared that it had executed an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) that had been sent by Interpol shortly before. The 79-year-old Duterte is "in good health".

Duterte had just arrived from Hong Kong, where he had been campaigning for candidates close to him among migrant workers in the current Philippine election campaign. When he was arrested, according to a clip shown on television, Duterte told the officers: "You have to kill me. I will not allow you to side with the white foreigners."

According to media reports, he was later taken by police to Manila's Villarmor Air Force Base. Human rights organizations and relatives of victims welcomed the arrest. Duterte supporters reacted with horror.

The ICC accuses the still highly influential politician, who was president of the Southeast Asian country from 2016 to 2022, of "crimes against humanity". Duterte had previously unleashed an extra-legal "war on drugs" as mayor of the southern city of Davao, which has a population of one million, and then as president.

Estimates of up to 30,000 deaths

Many small-time dealers, drug addicts, but also numerous innocent people and critics were killed in the slums by the police and death squads. Duterte, a lawyer, had encouraged them to commit their murders and supported them politically. He disempowered the country's human rights commission, and the former justice minister and Duterte critic Leila de Lima spent almost seven years in prison, innocently convicted, on fabricated charges.

According to government figures, 6,181 people died in the war on drugs, while human rights organizations estimate the number of victims to be as high as 30,000. Victims who allegedly resisted or tried to flee were often shot. The judiciary and police investigated sloppily, and only very rarely were those responsible investigated.

The ICC began investigating Duterte in 2016, looking into cases dating back to 2011. After Duterte became president in 2016, he withdrew the country's signature from the Rome Statute, which forms the basis of the ICC. However, the withdrawal did not become legally binding until 2019, meaning that the court in The Hague, unlike Duterte, believes it still has jurisdiction over cases up to 2019.

Under Duterte's successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippines has not returned to the ICC. Extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers have also continued under Marcos, albeit on a smaller scale and with less obvious support from the president. Marcos Jr., however, has stated that the Philippines is committed to cooperating with the court for cases before 2019.

Sara Duterte wants to become president, Marcos wants to prevent that

The Marcos and Duterte family clans are currently the most influential in the country and had joined forces for the 2022 elections. Marcos Jr., a son of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos who was overthrown in 1986, has his stronghold in the north, Duterte and his daughter Sara in the south. They won the election by a landslide, but have since fallen out.

In November, Vice President Sara Duterte even publicly threatened to have Marcos Jr. assassinated . He retaliated on a similar level. Sara Duterte is currently facing impeachment proceedings supported by Marcos .

Since midterm elections will take place on May 12, which will set the course for the 2028 presidential elections and thus determine Sara Duterte's chances of winning the presidency, Duterte's arrest is also part of the election campaign as a political maneuver.

Marcos Jr. is not allowed to run again in 2028, but is building up his brother-in-law as a possible successor. Marcos Jr. has not yet said whether he will extradite Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague or possibly put him on trial in the Philippines.