Duterte speaking at a rally on Sunday. Two days later, he was arrested at an airport in Manila. - 

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been “forcibly taken” onto a plane headed for The Hague, his daughter said on Tuesday, hours after his dramatic arrest on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant over a brutal, years-long anti-drugs crackdown that left thousands of his citizens dead.

Duterte was placed on a flight late on Tuesday, his daughter and local outlet The Philippine Star reported. “They are taking him out on a plane by force without considering his health conditions,” Veronica Duterte wrote on Instagram. Reuters also reported that Duterte had boarded a plane.

In a separate statement to The Philippine Star, Sara Duterte – who is also the country’s vice president – said her father was being taken to The Hague. “As I write this, he is being forcibly taken to The Hague tonight. This is not justice – this is oppression and persecution,” she said, according to the outlet.

After her father’s plane took off, she told a reporter she would head to the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Duterte, 79, was taken into custody at the main airport in the capital Manila after returning to the Philippines from Hong Kong on Tuesday, charged with crimes against humanity. The ICC on Tuesday confirmed it had issued an arrest warrant for Duterte on “charges of the crime of murder as a crime against humanity,” for actions it alleges were committed between November 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019. CNN has reached out to Interpol for comment.

His flight left Manila just after 11 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, according to Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Duterte’s successor as president. It will land for a stop in Dubai in several hours’ time, according to flight tracking websites.

Marcos said he had received the Interpol notice for Duterte’s arrest warrant at 3 a.m. local time.

“Interpol asked for help and we obliged because we have commitments to the Interpol which we have to fulfill,” Marcos told a press conference Tuesday night.

The former leader oversaw a ferocious crackdown on drug pushers in the Southeast Asian country, targeting with relentless and bloody zeal a criminal trade that had sparked widespread anger among his supporters. The crackdown killed more than 6,000 people based on police data, though independent monitors believe the number of extrajudicial killings could be much higher.

The ICC, which sits in the Dutch city of The Hague, had previously said it was investigating Duterte, but his arrest nonetheless caught the country off guard. It immediately mobilized his significant throng of supporters, some of whom angrily confronted police outside the airbase where he was held for several hours.

“I’m sad because I didn’t think it would come to a point where he would be arrested. For me, he did a lot for our country and this is what they did to him,” 31-year-old Aikko Valdon, a Filipino who works overseas, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Duterte’s arrest and removal from the country is a stunning coda to a stormy and violent stint at the top of Philippine politics. Duterte ruled the country of 115 million people for six years, and his unrelenting war on drugs left behind a bloody legacy, but he is celebrated by voters particularly in Davao city, where he served as mayor for about two decades before ascending to the presidency.

His drug crackdown killed thousands; many of the victims were young men from impoverished shanty towns, shot by police and rogue gunmen as part of a campaign to target dealers. It prompted internal inquiries and an ICC investigation that culminated in Tuesday’s arrest. Duterte has repeatedly denied the extrajudicial killing of alleged drug suspects, although he also openly admitted to ordering police to shoot suspects who resist arrest.

Loved ones of those killed in Duterte’s violent crackdown rejoiced at his arrest. Christine Pascual, the mother of one of the victims, told Reuters: “Through our prayers, what we believed in, and for all the people around us, we did not expect this to happen, after all the years we have fought for justice, finally a warrant of arrest was issued against a president and to Duterte at that.”

Others said this is just the beginning of a long road to justice.

“The fight has just started but we will make sure to see this through. We will not stop,” said Llore Pasco, a mother of two victims.

Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, in a move condemned by critics as an effort to shield himself from accountability. But under the ICC’s withdrawal mechanism, the court keeps jurisdiction over crimes committed during the membership period of a state – in this case, between 2016, when his term started, and 2019, when the Philippines’ pullout became official.

The ICC said Tuesday that once a suspect was in its custody, an initial appearance hearing would be scheduled.

At an event on Sunday in Hong Kong, Duterte lashed out at the ICC amid speculation that his arrest war nearing. “I have a warrant … from the ICC or something,” he told supporters. “What did I do wrong? I did everything that I could in my time, so there is a little bit of quiet and peace for the lives of the Filipinos.”

His political ambitions did not conclude with the end of his term in office; Duterte registered in October to run as mayor in Davao.

And he is supported by a political dynasty that still exerts authority up and down the country. His daughter Sara was herself impeached last month on a range of accusations that include plotting to assassinate the new president.

And his son Sebastian Duterte is the current mayor of Davao; he had planned to run as his father’s vice-mayor in next year’s mid-term elections.

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Factbox-What happened in Philippine drug war that led to Duterte's arrest?

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday in Manila on an International Criminal Court warrant for the "war on drugs" that defined his term in office and which killed thousands of Filipinos.

Here are some facts about the drug war during Duterte's presidency from 2016 to 2022:

CAMPAIGN VOWS TO 'KILL'

As longtime mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao, Rodrigo Duterte was known as "the punisher" for his harsh policies. His profanity-packed speeches and death threats to drug gangs were a feature of his successful campaign for the presidency in 2016.

Among his statements during the campaign were: "Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because I'd kill you."

He said his campaign in Davao kept citizens safe from crime. He also reiterated his intentions for a violent crackdown to Reuters reporters during the campaign.

"I say let's kill five criminals every week, so they will be eliminated," he told Reuters.

NATIONWIDE ROLLOUT

It did not take long for the same kind of police crackdowns to be implemented nationwide.

By the end of 2016, Duterte's war on drugs was well under way across the nation, and the body count was setting records.

Police killed more than 2,000 people in the months after Duterte was inaugurated on June 30 until the end of the year. Most of the deaths were described as shootouts.

The crackdown and death toll did not dent Duterte's popularity.

An opinion poll published by the Social Weather Stations research agency in December 2016 showed 77 percent of Filipinos were satisfied with Duterte's performance.

In 2018, Reuters journalists received a Pulitzer prize for a series of investigative stories on the drug war, including tracking down security camera footage that contradicted official accounts of shootout killings.

FINAL TOLL

By the time Duterte left office in 2022, the drug war's official toll had at least tripled. Police said 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations.

The Philippine government has officially acknowledged 6,248 deaths due to the anti-drug campaign.

But activists say the real toll of the crackdown was far greater, with thousands of urban and poor drug users, many placed on official "watch lists", killed in mysterious circumstances.

Duterte was unapologetic in his defence of his campaign and says he told police to kill only in self-defence.

Families of some of those killed and human rights advocates later exhumed bodies, sometimes accompanied by Reuters journalists, and compared the remains with death certificates and official reports.

Dozens of cases showed violent deaths where the death certificates listed natural causes. In one case, the death certificate listed pneumonia as the cause of death, although the skull of the exhumed body had a bullet hole.

The ICC prosecutor has said as many as 30,000 may have been killed by police or unidentified individuals over the years.

ICC INVESTIGATION AND ARREST WARRANT

In February 2018, the ICC prosecutor's office said it would conduct a preliminary investigation into deaths in the Philippines.

Barely a month later, Duterte said he would withdraw from the ICC. The exit took effect in March 2019.

But under ICC rules even if a state withdraws as a member it retains jurisdiction over crimes within its jurisdiction committed during the membership period.

The ICC investigation was suspended in 2021 after the Philippines claimed it had a functioning judicial system capable of investigating and prosecuting alleged abuses.

However, in 2023, the ICC investigation was reactivated after the court said it was unsatisfied with Philippine efforts.

The current government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr initially said it would not cooperate with the ICC, but said in late 2024 it would comply with any arrest warrant.

Its justice minister told Reuters in January the government was open to cooperate with the international body.

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Marcos Says Duterte to Face Charges Over Drug War at The Hague

 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said a plane carrying former President Rodrigo Duterte has left the country for The Hague to allow the ex-leader to face charges of crimes against humanity committed during his deadly drug war.

The move was in compliance with Manila’s commitments to the Interpol. “This is what the international community expects of us,” Marcos said in a televised address late on Tuesday.

Duterte was arrested by police at the Manila airport upon his arrival on Tuesday morning from Hong Kong after the International Criminal Court ordered it following a probe into his anti-drug campaign. The arrest was not a violation of the Philippines’ sovereignty, Marcos said.

Hundreds of Duterte’s supporters held a rally and prayer vigil on Tuesday night beside the airport where the former Philippine leader was arrested.

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