Manila [Philippines], March 12: A plane carrying the former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has left Manila after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity over his deadly "war on drugs".
He was taken into police custody shortly after his arrival at the capital's international airport from Hong Kong on Tuesday morning.
Duterte, 79, contested his detention but within hours was on a chartered jet en route to The Hague in the Netherlands, where the ICC sits. Current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the country was meeting its legal obligations.
During Duterte's time in office, thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial.
Marcos said his predecessor would face charges relating to what he described as Duterte's "bloody war on drugs".
"Interpol asked for help and we obliged," President Marcos told a press conference. "This is what the international community expects of us."
Duterte's daughter Sara, who said she would accompany him to The Hague, is vice president and a political rival of Marcos. She has said the arrest amounts to persecution.
Rodrigo Duterte has offered no apologies for his brutal anti-drugs crackdown, which saw more than 6,000 suspects killed when he was president from 2016 to 2022, and mayor of Davao city before that.
Nevertheless, he questioned the basis for the warrant, asking: "What crime [have] I committed?" in a video posted online on Tuesday by another daughter, Veronica Duterte.
While his supporters have criticised the arrest, activists have called it a "historic moment" for those who perished in his anti-drug war and their families, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) said.
"Duterte's arrest is the beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his brutal rule," said ICHRP chairman Peter Murphy.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
