Former Philippine leader Duterte arrested on an ICC warrant over drug killings
Posted by brownmochi@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 108 comments
BrownThunderMK@reddit
I'm surprised he got taken in at all. Usually former leaders have the crime against humanity immunity+ package but I guess butchering your own people instead of others gets you in trouble.
Antique-Resort6160@reddit
This is just a power struggle between the duterte and the Marcos families.
Duterte as president played the field and they are seen as undesireables by the US for making nice with China to increase energy independence, joint ventures in the south China/west Philippine Sea. There is a giant new LNG terminal, the Philippines isn't supposed to drill, they're supposed to import LNG and export cash. His daughter is VP and the biggest political threat to Marcos.
The Marcos camp is firmly under US control since their dad's dictatorship. Facebook basically got Marcos elected and he's an integral part of the plan to pressure China. He gave the US access to build new bases, bring in missiles, and sadly, passed a law for US funds to start buying up Philippines assets like power and water utilities. That's the end of any hope for a prosperous future.
ChickenInASuit@reddit
Immediately getting into a bitter feud with the person who replaced him probably didn’t help matters.
ApprehensivePlum1420@reddit
Didn’t his daughter, the VP, conspire the kill the President? Even compared American politics that’s still really wild to me
ChickenInASuit@reddit
Holy shit, this is the first I’ve heard of it but yes. And super recently too - a little over a month ago!
HelixClipper@reddit
There is a movie on netflix called Ballot (Ballota in the Philippines)..whilst it's obviously a work of fiction it's an interesting insight into how seriously filipinos take even local politics..I watched it in the Philippines and I was asking my wife a tonne of questions and she was basically yea it really do be like that.
It's on uk netflix but if you're going to watch, watch it subbed
jakethepeg1989@reddit
It's also amazing how even local politics in the Philippines gets turned into dynasties so quickly.
Every Town, Province and Barangay seems to have the local power family that gets in to power for generations. And people just accept it and vote for some 20 year old with no policies or seemingly any charisma as he's from the right family who get to be the mayor!
At the top of the country there is century+ long family struggles between Aquino', Marcos' and now Dutertes.
IgotaMartell2@reddit
It depends. The Philippines is a country of over 120+ ethnolinguistic groups and the strength of political dynasties differ from region. There are more entrenched political dynasties in Luzon(specifically near or around the capital) that lasts generations. While in the Visayas control constantly changes hands between clans like a game of musical chairs that have a chance to turn violent. While in Mindanao, it is extreme clan vs clan feuds(look up the Maguindanao massacre). If not clan violence then there's religious tensions between the Moro Muslims and the Filipino Christians.
That's actually the exception and not the norm as most mayors are old(in their 40's or early 50's)
The irony is that the late Corazon Aquino was the one who placed Duterte in charge of Mindanao after the 1986 revolution because his Mother was a supporter of Aquino and a teacher and social activist of the Moro people.
lurkerdaIV@reddit
Idk if you're filipino or not but I'm happy that you know the word Barangay lol it's not often that others know this.
HelixClipper@reddit
Yea 100% I visited last month and regional vice governer elections were about to start and the posters for the candidates were all over the barangay so of course I asked my wife and she gave me the whole background into the dynasties of the two candidates..absolutely mental..I couldn't even name my local councillor in my (UK) region let alone tell you their families political history
jakethepeg1989@reddit
Yeah I had a very similar experience.
When I was working out there I often had to work with the Mayor of my provincial town. She had photos of her predecessors in her office and she was related to about 2/3rds of them.
Shortly after I left, she lost the next election to a guy related to the other 1/3rd.
FourKrusties@reddit
was this the same family with the decades old 'lost' priceless art in their living room?
Kozel_@reddit
That sounds more like Marcoses.
pututingliit@reddit
Yeah, and their cult- I mean supporters are blatantly ignoring that fact and acting as if that didn't happen lmao
Benderesco@reddit
Even wilder when you take into account that there's a significant Duterte cult in the Philippines to this day. This might have some interesting political repercussions.
navcus@reddit
It was definitely far easier to bring him in at NAIA. If the government tried to nab him after he returned to Davao, then they'd have to deal with the doubtful loyalties of local police along with his throngs of supporters that can be easily mobilized. Davao is his political stronghold, but Manila, while still a bit divided, isn't.
Autogenerated_or@reddit
His daughter ran as VP against his wishes. He originally wanted another of his allies to run as Pres but the guy had zero rizz.
Anyway the Dutertes are more aligned with China while the Marcoses court the West so there’s a divide there. Marcos outmaneuvered VP Sara and begun dismantling their power base- their pet cult leader, the Chinese hubs, their lawyers, their political allies, and their media allies.
Duterte started saber rattling and called for the Southern regions to secede. Neigboring warlords just side eyed him.
Anyway their alliance completely publicly fell apart last year so the PH government has zero incentive to protect him.
blumentritt_balut@reddit
he wanted sara to run for president, but she was persuaded to run for VP instead. the old man was so steamed that she took someone else's advice over his, he appointed one of her enemies to a very important position in his last days in office
IMissMyWife_Tails@reddit
Why didn't the ICC manage to arrest genocidal and wae criminals like Netanyahu, but they successfully arrested a politician that nobody knows about it outside the Philippines knew?
FatFaceAbs@reddit
ICC only arrests Africans and Asians. If you an ally of the west you can commit all the war crimes you want and they’ll protect you.
ASK_ABT_MY_USERNAME@reddit
Israel is in Asia
IMissMyWife_Tails@reddit
Netanyahu isn't Polish settler in Palestine.
jakethepeg1989@reddit
He was born in Tel Aviv.
Fantastic-String5820@reddit
Nope he was born in hell
jakethepeg1989@reddit
O hey, it's that weird Irish guy who pretends to be Israeli!
Howdy partner.
Fantastic-String5820@reddit
Israelis don't respect you Bazza
jakethepeg1989@reddit
K
Fantastic-String5820@reddit
Of course it's okay, being subservient is what you guys do!
xBanzer@reddit
Hasan viewer 🤢
Fantastic-String5820@reddit
whats hasan
jakethepeg1989@reddit
Cool story bro
Nahcep@reddit
Damnz never knew we were so powerful that we controlled the state of Israel, would have been handy to know all these decades
IMissMyWife_Tails@reddit
Poles are the new jews /s
Critical-Bread-3396@reddit
The ICC does not make any arrests, it is merely a judiciary court. What they do is issue arrest warrants that are valid for all police in all member countries, and then people are arrested by the appropriate local police where they are located. Most of the time the ICC only gets arrests after a regime change, where the next leader chooses not to protect the previous one.
IMissMyWife_Tails@reddit
International laws for thee but not for me
pleasebuymydonut@reddit
Try not to flaunt your ignorance so hard.
throwaway4161412@reddit
Exactly my question in the first part but Duterte is definitely not an unknown quantity, he was all over Western news when he was in office.
frizzykid@reddit
1.) just because you don't know about it doesn't mean duterte wasn't well known. If you asked anyone in the geopolitical sphere in the past 10 years what was one big controversy in the Phillipines it was their leaders draconian drug policies.
2.) netanyahu is obviously a much larger fish to fry with much larger implications seeing as he's currently in power and very closely alligned to the United States. And in fairness to the icc that goes both ways, netanyahu isnt just entering any country or flying over any country either, the icc's attempts to prosecute hinder netanyahu's ability to travel freely.
saracenraider@reddit
Nobody knows of outside of the Philippines?!
He hasn’t been in the news much in recent years but he was globally famous and constantly in the news in the late 2010s and early 2020s
Some people have the memories of goldfish
Zipz@reddit
He’s probably the only politician most people know from the Philippines outside of manny pacquiao.
jakethepeg1989@reddit
Imelda Marcos lives in Popular Culture because of the 3,000 pairs of shoes.
Not sure if she still counts as she isn't in any office currently, but her son is the president.
EH1987@reddit
The ICC doesn't arrest people.
rassmuzz@reddit
Because it is not the ICC that does the arresting. It is the member countries that do. Just like it is the police that arrest b ut the court that isssues an arrest warrant. The ICJ is dependent on the member states to enforce and participate. So with Netanyahu as long as he is Israels pm, Israel will not arrest him, and other countries would at least be very relectant to arrest due to political implications and considerations. But for other countries to arrest requires him to be in those countries.
alt-right-del@reddit
Threatening to invade the Netherlands over ICC arrest warrants for Americans tells you enough about the USA (see: The Hague Invasion Act)
Netanyahu did not come to Europe since the ICC arrest warrant for him came out —
truenataku1@reddit
Dutuerte was one of the most famous world leaders not too long ago?
Professional_Top4553@reddit
Duterte is well known
hell_jumper9@reddit
He was arrested inside the Philippines.
ApprehensivePlum1420@reddit
Some countries do respect international law I guess, although Marcos conveniently has a lot to gain by complying with this warrant.
ChickenInASuit@reddit
This isn’t true. He got a lot of coverage in the USA.
Coolenough-to@reddit
Whats wrong about this is the current leaders have declined to join the ICC. The ICC should not have any authority to arrest somone in the Philipines. But they did so anyway, after getting permission from the current leader. So this means that any current world leader can use the ICC to arrest somone, as long as there is an ICC warrant. So if you think your country is out of the jurasdiction of the ICC, you are wrong.
HDK1989@reddit
Is absolutely nothing.
Coolenough-to@reddit
The problem with jailing former leaders is this leads to more leaders who will refuse to let go of power.
Vordeo@reddit
So let's be clear here: would you prefer a mass murderer (and he did fucking do it, he's been bragging about extra judicial killings for decades) not be brought to justice?
Coolenough-to@reddit
If he is guilty of murder then yeah he should be jailed.
HDK1989@reddit
You're out in public defending a mass murderer. Where's your shame? Mass murderers should be jailed, whether they were publically elected or not.
Coolenough-to@reddit
Im not defending this guy, I dont know the details here. I was just talking about the overall concept.
navcus@reddit
It's not like he was ever willing to let go of his power to begin with. His family's been pushing for the secession of Mindanao ever since talk of Sara being impeached began; they are absolutely desperate to hold on. The Duterte's just overestimated their influence.
No, jailing former leaders needs to happen; no one is above the law. And it's a good reminder for someone who so arrogantly thought he could be both judge, jury and executioner.
Coolenough-to@reddit
I dont know the details of this case. I was just commenting about the general concept.
GalacticMe99@reddit
Good
ApprehensivePlum1420@reddit
All of the crimes Duterte is charged with happened when the Philippines was still a signatory of the Rome Statue. He then withdrew it from the court after he’s aware of the legal exposure. But you can’t commit crimes and then say oopsie maybe this international law thing isn’t for me at all. No shit. The criminal nature of an act is entirely tied with whether that act was illegal at the time committed.
manhattanabe@reddit
Yet another example of the ICC ignoring their own charter and arresting someone from a non-member state. Some court of law they are. Better yet, the ICC is being used as an excuse to arrest a political impotent.
Kos_2510@reddit
Whilst the crimes were comitted Philippines were a signatory of the Rome statute according to which ICC has the right to persecute him.
bigtimeru5her@reddit
That’s what’s being contested now, from what I’ve been seeing online. Is that a good enough standing to prosecute or nah? Anyway, it’s not like it would matter; Marcos HATES him. If he comes back, he’ll either be very sickly and die or get assassinated. That’s if China chooses not to intervene as much as they already have.
FlyingVolvo@reddit
It's not contested, it was explicitly mentioned in the official press release as follows
> Withdrawing from the Rome Statute is a sovereign decision, which is subject to the provisions of article 127 of that Statute. A withdrawal becomes effective one year after the deposit of notice of withdrawal to the United Nations Secretary-General. A withdrawal has no impact on on-going proceedings or any matter which was already under consideration by the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective; nor on the status of any judge already serving at the Court.
Evidently the Court does not consider this a topic of dispute. Nevertheless he'll get his day in court(as everyone should) where he can contest his warrant.
Overall, I'd say it's a good day for justice.
bigtimeru5her@reddit
My mistake, then. When I made that comment, the discussion was pretty fresh.
Good day for justice indeed. I’ll throw a party the day he dies or serves his time. I’ll be glad to hear about loser daughters moaning and groaning about the “injustice” of it all.
From the announcement by Pres. Marcos Jr, it seemed he let it be due to our obligations to Interpol.
FlyingVolvo@reddit
No worries, knowing the intricacies of the way the ICC functions is hardly something that can be expected to be common knowledge.
Vordeo@reddit
A.) The crimes were absolutely committed, and they were committed while the Philippines was an ICC member.
B.) They are being used to arrest a political opponent, but frankly he is guilty of the crimes. Why are you against arresting a mass murderer?
Fantastic-String5820@reddit
Yet another example of an american serf crying about laws being applied to criminal leaders
hyborians@reddit
An American committing a crime on US soil and escaping to a foreign country can still be arrested. Your logic doesn’t check out.
AVonGauss@reddit
If the Philippines believes Duterte broke the law in the Philippines and wants to put him on trial for his crimes, more power to them. This also seems like yet another instance of the ICC exceeding their mandate in multiple respects, which isn't a surprise but don't complain when more countries disregard it.
Oberon_17@reddit
If the Philippines has reason to charge him, they should put him to trial in his country. But the current government probably made a deal with the ICC and got him sent to stand trial away from home. Easier and more convenient.
Deep-Ad5028@reddit
The real reason is that most if not all of the said extra-judicial killings were committed against drug dealers and was in fact quite popular with the Philippine peoples.
That's why the current administration hestitates to put Duterte through the local court system.
Oberon_17@reddit
But then why charge him at all? If he was “popular” with the people and he’s no longer in power, why even bother?
ianpogi91@reddit
Popular is an overstatement. He is infamous, and is a populist type of political figure which is why he basically has a cult and propaganda machine. It's his version of MAGA that is crying right now, but at least 70% of the country is very happy with this arrest.
Oberon_17@reddit
I understood that. Been following Philippine politics for long time. Such type of leader became a nuisance all over the globe. Unfortunately democracy has many weaknesses and is struggling in such times.
Deep-Ad5028@reddit
Macros (current president) and Duterte both want their child to become the next president.
NetworkLlama@reddit
The NYT has an article about a member of Duterte's hit squads who hopes to testify against him. Many of the squad's murders were people who weren't even affiliated with drug dealers. They were businessmen, political rivals, and just people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
narashikari@reddit
There were kids, too.
As a Filipino, I say fuck Duterte, I hope he rots in jail and in hell.
darthsurfer@reddit
That and it looks much better politically to have someone else (ICC) convict your political rival. Everyone here knows the Pres. cooperated because they're having a very heated political falling out.
It's still pretty blatant, but at least this way, he has some plausible deniability, however thin that veil is.
Ivanow@reddit
Counterpoint: some of most heinous acts in history were completely legal, as per local government laws.
If everyone followed your train of thought, Jews freed from concentration camps in Nazi Germany, would have no recourse to seek justice, since they could be just told “if SS leaders want to put perpetrators on trial for those actions, more power to them”.
AVonGauss@reddit
You'd have to think of a better counterpoint, the "SS" was not the Nazi German government and that government ceased to exist at the conclusion of the war.
Ivanow@reddit
My point still stands. By your logic, we shouldn’t have Nuremberg trials, since defense could argue that government of Germany opted to not persecute those crimes previously, and since then it meant ICC had to jurisdiction/legal standing.
AVonGauss@reddit
No, your attempts to compare the current situation to WW2 are just flawed, severely. Duterte was arrested by Filipinos, they have a functioning court system and are more than capable of conducting any trial.
ianpogi91@reddit
As a Filipino, no, without the ICC warrant and current president Marcos "willing to comply with the arrest", this would never happen. The courts here are corrupt, and Duterte has a lot of people inside the government. I don't even think he has an actual case here in the national level, or if there were, his dogs in the judiciary department have it all figured out.
ScarIet-King@reddit
The attached is a list of ongoing cases by the ICC concerning heads of state and other world leaders who are undergoing prosecution by the court. These individuals are capable of receiving charges in their home countries, but their crimes are those against humanity and were in violation of international law - thus, they face trial before an international tribunal.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/cases
AVonGauss@reddit
The ICC is not some kind of superior world court…
ScarIet-King@reddit
That’s certainly an opinion.
ApprehensivePlum1420@reddit
He’s been out of office since 2022, the Philippines’ justice had nearly 3 years for crimes he admitted doing on live television. At this point, it is clear that the system isn’t capable of/ willing to hold him accountable, hence it becomes the responsibility of the ICC.
mhrnegrpt@reddit
ICC has been cooking even before Marcos took over, he knows that he can afford not to do anything and just wait for a good moment if ever Duterte misbehaves.
When Duterte started his shenanigans, this is when the Philippine government started entertaining the ICC, saying that they're willing to cooperate.
TerribleIdea27@reddit
Phillipines withdrew in 2019. That's after he committed the crimes, while they were still member and therefore the court still had the authority to put out the warrant.
It's just that he is arrested only now. You can't retroactively change the law. If he didn't want to have been arrested he should have withdrawn from the ICC before he started extrajudicial executions
NetworkLlama@reddit
That started when he was mayor of Davao City. They just got worse when he was president.
Cloudboy9001@reddit
His fairly open use of extrajudicial death squads makes him fair game. Good riddance to this asshole.
jakethepeg1989@reddit
Yeah, the weird thing is he campaign on it.
He did it in Davao and campaigned saying I will make the killings happen nationwide. Then the killings happened nationwide!
He's never been shy about it.
John-Mandeville@reddit
Yup. As a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, it clearly falls under article VII of the Rome Statute.
Paltamachine@reddit
The Duterte family was beginning to see what a disaster they had gotten themselves into: to be the Asian copy of Ukraine... they tried a rapprochement with China, the USA did not like it.
It seems to me an explanation for all this... The Philippine leaders are scared and I am sure they regret their approach to the USA... but what can you do when a country controls the money you have in their banks and sometimes protects you from the law for one crime or another?
Vordeo@reddit
What? No they're not. This is the current administration taking advantage of a (valid) opportunity to get rid of a political opponent.
The Marcoses are very secure, and I say that as someone who is not a fan.
The fucking population didn't like it either. And 'tried a rapprochement' is a very fancy way of saying 'they tried to sell out the country'.
No-Influence-8539@reddit
No, Duterte made two big mistakes. First, he pivoted too much towards China yet got fewer incentives than he hoped. In a way, he is similar to Noynoy Aquino, who preceded him and pivoted too much towards America yet got so little from them.
Second, he thought that he was still hot shit after he left office. His unnecessary attacks against the current administration harmed him politically. Worse, his daughter decided to be a crybaby in front of the nation, by literally threatening to assassinate the president, and tarnished the Duterte name further.
Philippine leaders are not really scared and absolutely do not regret their approach to Washington. They're just opportunistically greedy. The current saga is just part of a years-long political war, wherein the Marcos clique is winning hard.
jeromeie@reddit
As an interesting tidbit, USA is currently sanctioning the ICC
https://apnews.com/article/4a77229e4eacd288d6dfc331b9f51ec5
ApprehensivePlum1420@reddit
Friendly reminder:
Trump praises Duterte for ‘unbelievable job’ cracking down on drugs in the Philippines
The list of thugs with crimes against humanity prosecution under their belt that Trump befriended and praised continues to rise. And not just the people, he specifically praised their crimes.
Vordeo@reddit
The funniest bit is they had a transcript of a conversation leaked / officially published where you could tell Trump thought Duterte was an expert on North Korea and it was equally obvious that Duterte knew jack shit about it.
2stepsfromglory@reddit
Not surprising, birds of a feather and all that.
JonasHalle@reddit
Of course. Trump wishes he was all those people.
randCN@reddit
filipino bros - aware me please, how bad was this guy?
qjxj@reddit
Philippines withdrew from the ICC, tough. What gives?
ChickenInASuit@reddit
The current president said he declined rejoining the ICC, but would cooperate with them if asked to make an arrest.
I suppose it doesn’t help that he and Duterte have been involved in nasty legal proceedings since the moment Duterte left office. Rodrigo obviously didn’t endear himself to the new administration.
demostenes_arm@reddit
According to ICC crimes were committed before Philippines ceased to be a member of ICC.
Of course, Bongbong Marcos could just have ignored the ICC’s arrest warrant, like Mongolia did with Putin. But given that Duterte has turned up to be his number 1 political opponent, I guess it was a too good of an opportunity to pass?
empleadoEstatalBot@reddit
Maintainer | Creator | Source Code
Summoning /u/CoverageAnalysisBot
coverageanalysisbot@reddit
Hi empleadoEstatalBot,
We've found 11 sources (so far) that are covering this story including:
The Straits Times (Leans Right): "Ex-Philippine president Duterte arrested over deadly drug war"
Barron's (Center): "Ex-Philippine President Duterte Arrested On International Warrant: Palace"
Associated Press News (Leans Left): "Former Philippine leader Duterte arrested on an International Criminal Court warrant"
Of all the sources reporting on this story, 55% are left-leaning, 18% are right-leaning, and 27% are in the center. Read the full coverage analysis and compare how 11+ sources from across the political spectrum are covering this story.
I’m a bot. Read here to learn how it works or message us with any feedback so we can improve the bot for you.