The arrest warrant was handed over to President Ferdinand R. Marcos of Manila Philippines at 3 a.m. Tuesday. Named: His predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, fired with drugs, killing thousands of people.
However, it is not direct to act under the ICC’s warrants, because the Philippines is not a member of the court. Therefore, at 6:30 a.m., Mr. Marcos’s government obtained another warrant from Mr. Duterte, this time in Interpol, acting on behalf of the court, a member of the Philippines.
Mr Marcos recalled his next step in his speech to the country on Tuesday. “Well, we’re going to have all the plans in place and let’s continue as we discuss,” he told his Justice Department head.
A few hours later, Mr. Duterte (who long seemed to be beyond the law) was arrested in Manila. By the end of the day, he had been kidnapped by abducted Hague to face charges of crime against humanity.
It was the quick end of a long list of impunity in the Philippines. Related to the killings in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, only a few were convicted, with an estimated 30,000 deaths. Now, those who openly praised the massacre are sent to court to face justice, partly due to changes in political style.
Mr. Marcos, son of dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, came to power after forming an alliance with Mr. Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte. They ran on a platform of national unity and won the presidential and vice presidential positions in 2022.
Ms. Duterte led the replacement of Mr. Marcos in the polls, and she succumbed to him, saying she wanted to cut off her head, threatening to dig out her father’s body and throw it into the ocean. Her own father called it the young Mr. Marcos “drug addicts” and “weak.”
Mr. Marcos mostly refuted the comments and rarely said in public. But his allies shot Ms. Duterte last month, hurting her political career.
She and her allies then condemned her father’s arrest, although Mr. Marcos said he was just following the International Assembly at the International Assembly that complies with Interpol.
“That’s justice, no matter how we get here,” said Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa. She has long been the target of Mr. Duterte as her news website Rappler has investigated the drug war.
“Now, is it involved politics? It always involves politics,” she added. “But it’s a reminder that the rest of the world is that accountability will bring you sooner or later, and impunity won’t last forever.”
It is still hard for some Filipinos to believe that such a time has come.
Jenel Claverio, 27, the son of Florecita Perez and Joemerie Claverio, was killed by a masked man in Navotas in December 2019. Ms Perez said in an interview that she said in an interview that she heard that when she heard that Mr. Duterte was arrested, she heard about the night time, but she waited to tell her partner at night because she wanted to tell him the news because she thought of it.
She hugged him from behind when they were about to sleep. “I said, ‘hon, Duterte has been arrested.’ He turned to me and said, “Oh? Can’t he escape? ”
Mr Duterte landed in the Netherlands on Wednesday night, where he will be taken to The Hague, where both the ICC and its detention facilities are based. A court official said Mr Duterte is not expected to appear on Wednesday, but he may be arraigned before a panel of three judges in the next few days.
The International Criminal Court usually has a long pretrial process, and planned trials are expected to begin in a few months.
Ms. Duterte was also on her way to The Hague to help organize her father’s legal team. Veronica Duterte, another daughter of the former leader, caught the video call with her father while he was on the plane. In an Instagram post, she wrote: “It lasted for over eight hours at a time, but there was only one sandwich left to eat for flight?”
But when the steward Mr. Duterte took off from the aerial base in Manila, thousands of people were delighted. For some, it reminds us of when Mr. Marcos’s father was ousted and fled to the United States nearly forty years ago.
“It’s not my parents on February 25 with the headlines in the newspaper, saying, “Marcos is leaving, but it feels very close.” (Critics accuse young Mr. Marcos of trying to paint history by not correctly realizing the importance of the day in 1986.)
Ms Iglesias said it was clear that the current president had approved the cuts to Duters’ powers in recent months.
“Those are impossible without his consent,” she said.
Despite his promise not to work with the International Criminal Court, Mr. Marcos told reporters in November that he would not stop the court and had an obligation with Interpol.
Mr. Duterte left the office with the highest approval rating in Philippine history, while Ms. Duterte is still leading the president’s poll in 2028, but the arrests now put her in an extremely vulnerable position. Dutertes has been unable to inspire a large crowd for the protests in recent months.
In approving Mr. Duterte’s arrest, Mr. Marcos gambling said he could eliminate the Dutertes as political forces without any significant rebound. Now, during the midterm elections, the issue may be frontline and center, a proxy battle between Marcos and the Duterte in May.
Two Duterte allies – his former assistant Christopher “Bong”; Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, architect of the Duterte War of Drugs, is seeking re-election for the Senate. Later this year, the Philippine senator will decide whether to convict Ms. Duterte of her impropriety. The ruling on her almost pulled her out of the highest job.
Public sentiment seems to be lagging behind Mr. Marcos so far. A survey of more than 1,700 Filipinos in March 2024 showed that nearly three-thirds of the ICC surveys were found.
On Wednesday night, in the city of Cotobato, Mr. Duterte’s stronghold, residents held banners and lighting cell phones to protest his arrest. Hundreds of people appeared, but the demonstrations were quickly eliminated.
Marlise Simons Report from Paris, aie balagtas see and Camille Elemia From Manila.
