The reasons behind the detention of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was investigating allegations that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had committed "crimes against humanity" during his alleged "war on drugs," issued an arrest order for him.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), which has 125 member countries, has global jurisdiction over four types of crimes: crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, war crimes, and genocide. It can step in when countries are reluctant or unable to charge suspects with crimes.

Prior to his election as president in 2016, Duterte spent 22 years as the mayor of Davao, a major city in the south. He was well-known for making the city one of the least dangerous in the nation in terms of street violence. He presented himself as a tough-talking opponent of the status quo.

During his six-year presidency, which ended in 2022, police or unidentified attackers killed around 6,000 suspects as part of his "war on drugs" campaign. According to a report by the BBC, "the police who do not need search or arrest warrants to conduct house raids, systematically forced suspects to make self-incriminating statements or risk facing lethal force." According to a subsequent UN study, young, urban, poor men made up the majority of the victims.

Duterte denied all of the accusations and withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019. The international court first noticed the alleged abuses in 2016, and it started looking into them in 2021. Covered were cases from November 2011, when Duterte was mayor of Davao, to March 2019.

The political viewpoint

Since his imprisonment, Duterte's relationship with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has been considerably worse. Marcos became president after forming a political alliance with Sara, Duterte's daughter, who was selected as his vice president. But because of their differing views on the Philippines' connections with China and the US, Marcos and Sara were up embroiled in a political conflict.

The Marcos administration secretly allowed the ICC's investigators to visit the Philippines in 2023, even though the country had decided to withdraw from the organization. Last year, the House of Representatives in the country also opened an investigation into Duterte's drug campaign.