MANILA: A plane carrying former Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte left the Philippine capital bound for The Hague on Tuesday following his arrest on an International Criminal Court warrant stemming from his deadly crackdown on drugs, Manila said.

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.

“Former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte took off at 11:03pm this evening and exited Philippine airspace,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos told a press briefing shortly after takeoff.

“The plane is en route to The Hague in the Netherlands allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs.” Duterte was arrested at Manila’s international airport on Tuesday after “Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC”, the presidential palace said.

China warns ICC against double standards in Rodrigo Duterte case

Before his evening departure, Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said her father was being “forcibly taken to The Hague”. “This is not justice — this is oppression and persecution,” she said in a statement.

Duterte had earlier taken to social media to say he believed the Philippine Supreme Court would step in and prevent his transfer. “The Supreme Court will not agree to that. We do not have an extradition treaty,” he said on Instagram live after his lawyers filed a petition with the court.

“What is the crime that I committed? Show to me now the legal basis of my being here,” he said in a separate video on the same platform.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar.com showed that the plane carrying the former president — tail number RP-C5219 — was scheduled to leave Dubai for Rotterdam at 2130 GMT on Tuesday. An ICC spokesman confirmed the arrest warrant and said an initial appearance hearing would be scheduled when Duterte was in court custody.

While supporters dubbed his arrest “unlawful”, 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”.

Human Rights Watch also said the arrest was a “critical step for accountability in the Philippines”.

‘Double standards’

China warned the ICC against “politicisation” and “double standards” in the Duterte case, saying it was “closely monitoring the development of the situation”.

Duterte’s morning arrest at Manila’s international airport followed a brief trip to Hong Kong. Speaking to thousands of overseas Filipino workers there on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2025