Arrest of the Philippines’ Former President, Rodrigo Duterte, Sets Off a Drama Worthy of Shakespeare

That was quick. Hours after his arrest at Manila airport, the Philippines’ former president, Rodrigo Duterte, was whisked off to the Hague for trial before the International Criminal Court for “crimes against humanity” committed in his “war against drugs” as a big city mayor and then as president.The arrest set off a drama worthy of Shakespeare. Mr. Duterte’s successor, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., was obviously relieved to get rid of a political irritant and rival, while Mr. Duterte’s daughter, Sara, impeached as vice president, looms as an aspirant for president in the next election in 2028.Mindanews, a website in the Duterte family stronghold of Davao on the east coast of the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, quoted Mr. Marcos as saying he was obligated to comply with an Interpol request “for help” in arresting Mr. Duterte. “We have commitments to the Interpol which we have to fulfill,” said Mr. Marcos, as reported by Mindanews. Otherwise, “They will no longer help us with other cases involving Filipino fugitives abroad. This is what the international community expects of us as the leader of a democratic country.”Mr. Duterte spent much of the day at Villamor Air Base near the airport before being hustled on to a night flight via Dubai to the Netherlands. Daughter Sara, fighting her impeachment as the Philippines’ vice president, said he had been “ forcibly taken to The Hague,” according to the Philippine Star. “This is not justice — this is oppression and persecution.”That said, Ms. Duterte boarded a flight in the morning for Amsterdam to support him through the ordeal of imprisonment and trial — and also possibly to avoid having to testify before the Philippine Senate on her impeachment by the lower house of the Philippine Congress. If the Senate votes to oust her, she would not be eligible to run for president.There was no doubt that Mr. Marcos wanted both father and daughter far from the Philippines even though he refuses to let the Philippines rejoin the ICC. It was Mr. Duterte who withdrew from the ICC, founded by the treaty of Rome in 1988, when first confronted with an ICC investigation into the extra-judicial killings of thousands in his drive to rid the country of the plague of narcotics.As mayor of Davao, Mr. Duterte was reputed to have formed “Davao Death Squads” that began killing drug suspects in 2011, the beginning of the period investigated by the ICC. Then he was accused of taking his campaign nationwide as president, resulting in the deaths of at least 6,000 people, say police, and it’s believed thousands more.At 79, Mr. Duterte is far from done politically. Breathing defiance as he sat in an easy chair at Villamor Air Base, awaiting extradition to the Hague, he asked, “What is the law, and what is the crime?” The cameras captured him declaring, “You have to answer for the deprivation of liberty.” In any case, he predicted that Sara, if she runs for president, “will win… because of what you did.”With him, his former chief of staff, Salvador Medialdea, asked the ICC rhetorically, “Do you know how to execute due process?” Another lawyer, with him on the flight to the Netherlands, will argue for his release.The ICC has its own issues. It’s the failure of the ICC to provide due process in the form of jury trials, public access to hearings, right of appeal based on new evidence, among other things, that has stopped Washington from ratifying the treaty. More recently, President Biden and then President Trump strongly objected to the bias of the court in trying to bring Prime Minister Netanyahu to trial for the conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.Ms. Duterte won’t be legally eligible to run for president if the Senate fails to dismiss her impeachment on a raft of charges, ranging from sedition to coercion and assault. Considering that she’s not yet been arrested, she may also convince the Senate to dismiss her impeachment — or she may avoid the Senate by resigning as vice president and focusing on campaigning for president.

Arrest of the Philippines’ Former President, Rodrigo Duterte, Sets Off a Drama Worthy of Shakespeare

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