Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by police at Manila’s international airport on Tuesday.
He was arrested on the order of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with a case of crime against humanity filed against him, the Philippine government said.
Mr Duterte was arrested and taken into police custody after arriving from Hong Kong, President Ferdinand Marcos’ office said in a statement.
The ICC has been investigating the massive killings that happened under the former president’s deadly crackdown against illegal drugs from November 1 2011, when he was still mayor of the southern city of Davao, to March 16 2019, as possible crimes against humanity.
Security officers patrol the airport after former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila (Aaron Favila/AP)
He withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Rome Statute in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability over the killings.
The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court’s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing the ICC did not have jurisdiction.
Appeals judges at the ICC ruled in July 2023 that the investigation could resume and rejected the Duterte administration’s objections.
Based in The Hague, the ICC can step in when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects in the most heinous international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
President Marcos, who succeeded Mr Duterte in 2022 and became entangled in a bitter political dispute with the former president, has decided not to rejoin the global court.
But the Marcos administration has said it would co-operate if the ICC asks international police to take Duterte into custody through a so-called Red Notice, a request for law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect.