Former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and is now in police custody soon after he arrived in Manila from Hong Kong on Tuesday morning in connection with an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and served by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

Duterte is charged with crimes against humanity at the international tribunal court in The Hague in connection with the bloody war on drugs he waged as president from 2016 to 2022, and as Davao City mayor for 22 years that killed at least 6,000 individuals. Rights groups and the ICC itself estimate a higher death toll.

In his case, what could have been issued was a pre-indictment warrant. The warrant “is to ensure the appearance of the accused” before a trial begins, Neri Colmenares, a lawyer who represents drug war victims in Philippine courts, had earlier explained.

“We’re happy with the turn of events today,” former senator Antonio Trillanes IV told ABS-CBN News. “It’s been a long journey since we first filed the communication in 2017. We’ve faced challenges, but at least we’ve reached this point. But it’s important for all of us to know that this is just the first step.”

Before Malacañang confirmed the issuance of a warrant for Duterte, Colmenares told ANC that if indeed a warrant had been issued for the arrest of the former president, “then it’s just an implementation of a long process that was started in 2017.

“It’s just part of a process that has long been demanded by the families of the victims,’’ he said.

In a statement at past 11 a.m., the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) confirmed that Interpol Manila had received an official copy of the arrest warrant from the ICC.

It said that the Prosecutor General served Duterte the ICC notification for his arrest upon his arrival at around 9:20 a.m. from China’s special administrative region. Duterte and his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, were in Hong Kong during the weekend to address a rally by Filipinos.

“At the moment he’s in the custody of the authorities,’’ the PCO said. 

In May 2017, lawyer Jude Jose Sabio asked the international court to charge Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other officials with mass murder and crimes against humanity over the thousands of extrajudicial killings in the conduct of the antidrug campaign. 

Trillanes filed a supplemental communication asking the ICC to investigate Duterte. 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has long maintained that he does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction in the Philippines, echoing assertions by Duterte and his camp. The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute, the ICC’s legal foundation, in 2018. This took effect a year later. 

In 2021, the ICC opened its investigation of the killings committed before the withdrawal. In January 2023, the court decided to allow the reopening of the inquiry into the war on drugs and denied the Philippines’ appeal against it. 

The Philippine National Police acknowledged that more than 6,000 were killed in the drug war but rights groups said the death toll could go as high as 27,000. As of November 2023, 50 of the 6,000 deaths had been investigated, three of which were successfully prosecuted, the government said.