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© 2025 AFPEx-Philippine President Duterte arrested for crimes against humanity
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Mr Kipling
He got rid of a host of drug dealing scum. The guy should be rewarded not arrested.
"no apologies, no excuses" exactly. He did what needed to be done. Other countries should follow.
I'veSeenFootage
So you're advocating for the complete dismissal of due process and judgment in a court of law and advocating for the death penalty for all people suspected of commiting drug-related crimes (including simple possession)? Even Judge Dredd would find that a bit too much.
isabelle
Great news, and long overdue.
Putin and Netanyahu next, please.
HopeSpringsEternal
Political retribution of political parties against politicians or political opponents is a growing global problem that's destroying Democracy, including in the Philippines.
The 'crimes' charged are usually utterly ridiculous.
Above said, politicians sometimes commit crimes, we've just seen FAR more weaponization of judicial systems of late
TorafusuTorasan
@HSE--yeah, weaponization of law like in the still ongoing court case against Maria Ressa, online news editor and Nobel prize winner. It has taken years to get most of the other indictments against her dropped.
OKuniyoshi
Ok, so how about the ICC executing the other warrants it issued to people/politicians from the west/its allies??
Earn some credibility first. Or, its only acting against people/states that cannot/unable to oppose it? IE, bully those that it can? Those that it can't, like those that imposed sanctions against it? What action to take?
TokyoLiving
Keep dreaming with Putin..
LOL
deanzaZZR
Once again another Philippine drama, this time with Bong Bong Marcos in the star role. Banana meet republic.
OssanAmerica
He should have gone to Mexico.
I'veSeenFootage
12 000 to 30 000 people killed, often based on flimsy or even completely made up evidence. If you don't think that's worth at least investigating, or that drug users need to be simply violently eradicated, you might need to reevaluate your moral standards.
noypikantoku
@Mr Kipling
Nope, there were innocent victims too, the collateral damages of his operation like that teenager Kian de los Santos. That's the problem when things are done without due process, some people were accused guilty until proven innocent and it's too late for them to appeal because they are already dead.
Plus! Those he executed are his rival drug syndicates, because the Duterte family is actually the country's biggest drug lords. Of course, he will make himself look like he is against Drugs so his gullible fanatics won't suspect him. But there are tons of evidences linking their entire family to Drugs. Plus there are also corruption cases filed against him and his daughter.
Finally justice will be served for those innocent people that this mad man and his minions killed. Their connections and money will not work on ICC, unlike in the broken Philippine justice system. May this man rot in jail !
Garthgoyle
He did what it was needed to do. You can't fight murderers and cartels with flowers and hugs.
Beechiemg
Get the most recent ones arrested to then go after them all. The US "war on drugs" did similar things not only in the US but in central and south America and beyond.
ian
Marcos doing everything to hold on to power
isabelle
Marcos is in power legally until 2028, and he cannot run for a second term, per the Philippine constitution.
He is not "doing everything to hold on to power" here.
eye-4-an-eye
My hometown, drugs are everywhere. It wasn't a good place to live. Even police uses drugs. The only president in the Philippines who tried to stop drugs and made Philippines safer is Duterte. Now drug people are back. Shooting people here and there. Hopeless. I'm not going back to Philippines anymore. My family is safer here in Japan.
ian
Hahaha you mean the presidency.
bass4funk
Yeah, he doesn’t need or deserve freedom, keep him locked up in the worst humane conditions in prison. Uttered filth this guy.
u_s__reamer
"Filth" does not even begin to describe this excrescence of a human being. He deserves to die in prison. There are many, many more heinous individuals who need to be collared and cuffed by the ICC. I wonder why Biden has escaped their attention? (rhetorical question).
I'veSeenFootage
Wild guess: because Biden didn't kill anyone?
iron man
Ok, Enuff. Philippines people to decide on philippines issues, without overlords. Japan peoples to decide on Japan issues, without overlords. Taiwan peoples to decide on their heritage issues without overlord blackmailing. As for overlording Arab nations, beware history always tells the future.
Five Families
Free the man! He fought against criminal organizations like the Triads and Yakuza bringing in the poison and the corruption in government offices. As well all those dirty police officers that comes along with it all in the drug trade in PI.
He started in Davao as the Mayor and then through the entire country as her President.
He is a hero in my book. Called Obama a son of a.........I loved that! On National and world TV.
Deal dope in PI at the time. It was a death sentence. Period. Strong leader. Strong family values.
Marcos is weak.
How many lives did Digong save by taking out these drug peddling thugs and scum bags and all corrupt officials? So many!
Who is to know. But many I am sure of it. The Philippians is safer today because of what he did.
The ICC again overreaches and other counties affairs. Where there is no right to do so.
Philippians is a free and sovereign Nation capable of punishing their own!
No way this man gets sent to any prison! He has to many supporters. And I am one his supporters along with my Asawa and our entire family in General Santos!
FREE THIS MAN!
WA4TKG
Philippine version of Trump.
No excuses, no apology.
Whether he was right, looks like he’s willing to accept that too.
(plenty of Philippine friends of mine AGREE with how he ran his presidency, sound familiar? )
GuruMick
Spain had an experience with drug users. They decriminalized use and offered medical help
Someone had the audacity to say "drug addicts have rights too "
....excuse me...I am clutching at my pearls as I write.
Imagine...people with a health condition called "substance abuse disorder " having rights !!!
Outrageous ....now lets crack down on alcohol drinkers....feed them to the fishes as Duterte proposed.
If you are of the Nancy Reagan "just say no " approach stay the hell away from this complex problem
fallaffel
You have to respect him a little bit. He committed terrible crimes, but for something he believed in, and it seems he's willingly paying the price for it.
WoodyLee
" Since taking office on June 30, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a “war on drugs” that has led to the deaths of over 12000"
Source: https://www.hrw.org/tag/philippines-war-drugs
Police officers in plain clothes and armed civilians who took up arms were executing suspects of the spot on the streets, many were innocent and had NO relation or connection to drugs dealing or use.
HopeSpringsEternal
PI become a haven for drug dealers in Asia due to the hardcore nature of China, Japan, South Korea etc.
Duterte was dealing with a situation not unlike Mexico today, except his citizens were also becoming big users.
Thus, the hardcore crackdown, had no choice, basically a low-grade civil war between cartels and PI Army, never an opportunity for resolving peacefully and get users help, as a serious turf battle with Govt. corruption etc.
john b
a lesson will be learned here:
if you do something the ICC won't like, you can't let an election remove you from power.
overall, the world will be worse off for this.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Nonsense: what the ICC "doesn't like" is crimes against humanity. If a scumbag dictator needs to flee his country there are plenty of non-ICC states to flee to like russia and China. Nothing is worse than such leaders acting with impunity.
Hiro S Nobumasa
The ICC should let the Filipino people decide. They should not let Duterte's political opponents who were totally dumped by the Filipino people as garbage be their sole counsel. Moreover the ICC's clandestine seizure of a 79 year old without considering his health condition is in itself a violation of human rights. The powerful druglords in the Philippines are celebrating now.
ohara
Duterte is a hero to ordinary philipinos. They love what he did for them. BongBong is another Ferdinand.
ohara
Five Families,
Exactly.
deanzaZZR
Somehow you failed to mention another option, the USA. Bong Bong's murderous father found refuge in Hawaii with a climate not so different from the Philippines.
You will have to name a person fleeing ICC "justice" to the PRC as I cannot think of anyone off the top of my head.
Hercolobus
Kangaroo court. Philippines gave its sovereignty away. Sorry for its people. Drugs will return.
ohara
Every Philipino I’ve met is thankful for what Duterte did. The streets were safe.
Now the corrupt BongoBongo.
ohara
ICC losing what was left of its credibility. Shame!
ohara
Drugs will return.
That is the intention.
ohara
Money talks. Corrupt ICC high ups paid off by BongBongo to help him win his power struggle. Disgusting.
ohara
You will have to name a person fleeing ICC "justice" to the PRC as I cannot think of anyone off the top of my head.
Yes, Taiwan, we await with interest your filling us in on that.
ohara
Spain had an experience with drug users. They decriminalized use and offered medical help
Uh yeah, and how has that worked out for Spain?
noypikantoku
Five Families
Do you watch, read and comprehend the reports properly about Duterte's bloody drug war? There were victims who are innocent and have nothing to do with drugs including teen agers! And can you explain how come they received hundreds of millions of pesos from a well known Chinese drug lord if they are really against drugs? Was it really a war against drugs or war against "Rivals"!?
And you, DDS (Die hard Duterte Supporters) should stop being bias and should stick to the facts. The basis of conviction is the law and constitution, not by the number of followers.
Duterte should never given a privilege to see the free world again, so as the entire Duterte Family especially Sarah Duterte who embezzled 125 Million peso funds that is supposed to be spent on Filipino students. These Dutertes are killers, traitors (For being China's lapdogs) and dorobos!
noypikantoku
ohara
You cannot even spell Filipino well and you act as if you know so much about the Philippines. All you have to do is to search on Google about the crime rates in the Philippines during 2016-2022, and you'll be surprised how false your statement is. I will give one link for you to start on :
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1998778/index-crime-rate-in-ph-down-by-61-87-from-2022-to-2024-pnp ,
Crime rate went down by 61% when Duterte left the office. So it is much safer when he was gone. Do yourself a favor and stop hanging out with Davaoenos. Plus don't blame Marcos Jr for this, the case was filed in ICC way back 2017, justice is jut catching up on this sick old man and there is nothing he can do about it. What goes around comes around.
noypikantoku
ohara
In 2016-2018, during the peak of the Duterte Administration, there were 217,830 crimes reported!!! So where did you get that information about the streets in the Philippines being safe?
Kris Sunga
In drug wars, preventing killings is impossible due to the inherent nature of combating the drug trade. Cartels engage in internal purges and eliminate rivals. Furthermore, adversaries, including drug lords and narco-politicians, may sabotage anti-drug efforts by staging murders of innocents and falsely blaming the government and police.
While 6,200 deaths were reported during Duterte's War on Drugs, and some may have been extrajudicial killings, holding Duterte solely responsible is not justifiable. Guilt is personal and confessions alone aren't enough for arrest; what is the context, identity of the victim, time and location also matter.
From his pre-election pronouncements, Duterte's stance against extrajudicial killings was clear. Having practiced law and previously served as a prosecutor, he knows the consequences and wider effects that could result from the situation. However, a controlled media and self-righteous critics distort his message. His "shoot to kill" order applies only to armed suspects resisting arrest, emphasizing self-defense and preservation of life, where a suspect's death is not the primary objective but a potential consequence.
Beyond the reported deaths, there were also undeniably positive impacts to consider of the anti-drug campaign. Over 1.3 million individuals surrendered under "Oplan Tokhang," including drug users and small-time pushers. From 2016 to 2021, over 53,000 individuals were admitted to Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers (DATRCs), highlighting rehabilitation efforts. Furthermore, the estimated number of drug users decreased from 4 million in 2016 to 1.67 million by the end of the term.
The anti-drug war campaign saved many lives, contributing to Duterte's 73% approval rating at the end of his term in 2022 (Pulse Asia). His approval peaked at 91% during the 2020 pandemic. This is the legacy that the current administration is now attempting to erase, by jailing him to a foreign land with a condition he is not accustomed to at the age of 80 battling failing health and separated from his family.
Kris Sunga
The ICC case against him is politically motivated. Throughout his term and even after leaving power, Duterte fought not only drug traffickers but also elites who scorned his provincial background, unconventional style, and coarse language. His most vocal critics, supporters of Leni Robredo ("pinklawans") with media connections, selectively highlight extrajudicial killings while overlooking the numerous victims of drug-related crimes. The Pinklawans have allied with Marcos, whom they previously despised to defeat Duterte.
Marcos Jr. rejects ICC jurisdiction as a threat to Philippine sovereignty. The Philippine ICC membership was withdrawn in 2019. However, the pursuit of Duterte is also seen as a way to undermine his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, a strong contender for the 2028 presidency with significantly more popular support than Marcos's cousin, the current House Speaker, whose presidential aspirations are negligible despite his control over the national budget. The belief is that imprisoning Duterte will diminish his family's influence and derail their hold on power.
The arrest is widely viewed as a smokescreen to distract from the administration's mounting problems, including the alleged involvement of Marcos' wife in Tantoco's fatal overdose in the US. Other issues include the Supreme Court hearing on the mishandled national budget, ballooning national debt, siphoning of funds from institutions like PHILHEALTH and PDIC, the transfer of funds from DBP, Landbank, GSIS, SSS, and PAGCOR to the Maharlika Funds, the sale of gold reserves, massive corruption in flood control projects, illegal use of public funds for vote-buying through "ayudas" and the worsening drug problem situation. With Duterte no longer president, drug problems have worsened, criminal activities are rampant, and public safety is compromised. This is the real situation here.
GuruMick
I just saw an interview with a respected Pino journo....we are talking 20,000 plus extra judicial homicides including hundreds of murdered youth.
"Killing Fields " was the expression used.
This matter is properly a human rights abuse matter and will be heard in the appropriate forum.