Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, has been flown to the Hague hours after being arrested in the capital Manila on Tuesday.
The ICC warrant seen by Reuters accuses Duterte of criminal responsibility for the murder of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019 as part of his war on drugs as mayor of the southern city of Davao and later as the president between 2016 and 2022.
Duterte wanted his trial to take place in a court in the Philippines. “If I committed a sin, prosecute me in Philippine courts,” he told police officers while in custody in Manila.
Here’s what we know about Duterte’s war on drugs and the reactions of families of victims.
What was Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’?
Rodrigo Duterte built his reputation as “the punisher” while he was the mayor of Davao for more than 20 years, though he served intermittently. During his on-and-off tenure, more than 1,000 people were killed, including suspected drug users and dealers. Rights organisations have accused Duterte of running a “death squad” as mayor, a position that he held until his last term ended in 2016.
His pledge to launch a nationwide crackdown on drug gangs became the feature of his successful presidential campaign in 2016.
Just after taking oath as president on June 30, 2016, Duterte vowed to solve the country’s illegal drug problem within six months.“I don’t care about human rights, believe me,” he later declared.
He also offered soldiers and police his “official and personal guarantee” of immunity from prosecution for deaths undertaken in the performance of their duties.
On July 1, 2016, the first full day of Duterte’s presidency, police carried out anti-drug operations across the country, killing at least 12 people and ushering in a bloody campaign for the next six years that would leave some 7,000 people dead, including women and children.
By December 2016, more than 5,000 people had been killed across the country, including 2,041 drug suspects slain in police operations, according to data gathered by Al Jazeera. The other victims were killed by unknown gunmen, some of whom would later turn out to be police officers.
In Duterte’s first few months in office, many of the victims were found bound, their remains dumped in polluted creeks, garbage dump sites and grasslands.
By the end of his term in 2022, human rights advocates and the ICC prosecutor estimated some 30,000 people were killed by police and unidentified individuals. But police only reported 7,000 deaths during police operations, omitting those killed by unknown perpetrators.
What was the public’s reaction to the war on drugs?
Throughout his presidency, Duterte enjoyed a high approval rating from the public, allowing him to push for his brutal anti-drug war agenda.
Right after he took office in 2016, he received an approval rating of 86 percent. And just before he left office in 2022, his approval rating was at 73 percent, according to a Pulse Asia survey.
At every turn, Duterte’s pronouncement about his bloody war on drugs was cheered on by an adoring public. In 2017, a national assembly of city and provincial legislators roundly applauded when he said there was nothing he could do if poor people were killed in his war on drugs. He also complained that the media were “treating victims as saints” and “innocent people”.
An Amnesty International report in 2017 found that most of the people who were killed were living under the poverty line. The report said that police officers also confessed to receiving reward money equivalent to $150 to $300 for every drug suspect they killed, creating an “incentive to kill”.
Surviving Duterte’s war on drugs
While many of the victims in the drug war met their untimely death, a few have survived to tell the tale of police executions and abuse.
In September 2016, Francisco Santiago Jr told Al Jazeera that he and another man were detained by police in Manila, before they were brought to a darkened alley and shot multiple times.
Santiago’s companion, George Huggins, was killed on the spot. But Santiago stumbled on the ground and played dead. He got up after journalists came to the scene, and his rescue was dramatically caught on camera. His testimony to the media was later included as evidence in the complaint filed before the ICC.
Roger Herrero met a similar fate in 2018. The young father of four from Quezon Province was shot by police at point-blank range, shattering his jaw. He was accused by police of robbery, and of attempting to flee using a motorcycle. But Herrero’s wife later told photojournalist Ezra Acayan that the victim does not even know how to ride a motorcycle. Herrero also played dead to survive, and only managed to get up and ask for help after the police left.
In another case in 2017, the Commission on Human Rights found a hidden cell inside a police station in Manila with 12 detainees cramped inside. The agency said that there was no record of their arrest and the police failed to notify their families or lawyers about their disappearance. In 2021, the government dismissed the complaint against the police officers, accused of the illegal detention.
Children not spared
As of June 2020, four years into Duterte’s drug war, an estimated 129 children had been killed by police or allied assailants, according to a Reuters news agency report that cited an activist group.
One of the youngest to have been killed was three-year-old Myca Ulpina, who was hit during a 2019 raid targeting her father in the Rizal Province just outside of Metro Manila. Police claimed that the child was used as a “shield” during the operation.
On Negros Island in the central Philippines, four-year-old Althea Fhem Barbon was also killed after police fired at her and her father while they were on a motorbike. Police claimed that her father was a drug dealer.
One of the most high-profile cases was the killing of Kian delos Santos, who was shot by police in an alley near his house in 2017. According to witnesses, the 17-year-old had pleaded with police to let him go, because he was still studying for his exams the next day. Police claimed he was armed. But CCTV footage of the incident showed police dragging the unarmed and helpless teenager just moments before he was shot dead.
Just a few days later, police were also accused of abducting two teenagers in another Manila suburb. Police said that the teenagers had tried to rob a taxi driver. In the ensuing police chase, the elder victim, Carl Arnaiz, was shot dead.
What’s the reaction from families of victims, rights groups?
Llore Pasco, the mother of two young men who were killed in an alleged police operation, told Al Jazeera she’s “filled with mixed emotion” after learning of Duterte’s arrest.
“I felt so nervous and scared, but also excited,” she said.
“My eyes were also filled with tears. At long last, after so many years of waiting, it’s happening. This is it.”
She said that the ICC is her one last hope for justice, adding that she has “little to no hope” of obtaining justice in the Philippines.
Pasco’s sons, Crisanto and Juan Carlos, went missing from their neighbourhood one day in May 2017. The family’s worry turned to shock and grief after they learned only from television the following day that the two were killed, accused by police of robbery.
Pasco said her sons were killed in a police rubout. Her testimony has also been included among the filings before the ICC in 2021.
Jane Lee, wife of a drug war victim, said that the arrest of Duterte shows the inequality in the Philippines justice system.
“Duterte is only being arrested now. But our family members were executed right away,” Lee said. “I want to see Duterte in jail.”
Did the Philippines withdraw from the ICC?
Duterte said he would withdraw from the ICC barely a month after the ICC said in February 2018 that it would conduct a preliminary investigation into the deaths. He withdrew from the Hague-based court in March 2019.
But under ICC rules, even if a state withdraws as a member, the court retains jurisdiction over crimes within its administration that are committed during the membership period.
The ICC investigation was suspended in 2021 but reactivated two years later after the Hague-based court said it was unsatisfied with Philippine efforts to dispense justice.
The current government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr initially said it would not cooperate with the ICC, but said in late 2024 that it would comply with any arrest warrant. Analysts say Marcos Jr’s U-turn is likely due to his fallout with Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, the country’s Vice President Sara Duterte.
