Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested by the police upon his arrival at Manila's international airport on Tuesday after an Interpol arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Duterte was arrested by the police and taken into custody upon his arrival from Hong Kong following the orders from the ICC. The ICC said it would investigate Duterte's role in suspected crimes against humanity, overseeing a bloody "war on drugs" that killed thousands of Filipinos. However, Duterte had earlier said that he was ready to be taken into custody if the International Criminal Court issues a warrant against him amid his repeated defense of anti-drugs crackdown. The former president of the Philippines has denied ordering police to kill drug suspects unless in self-defence. Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s office, in a statement earlier said that they had served an official copy of the arrest warrant to Duterte by the police and that the former president is now in custody. According to a Reuters report, Duterte's former legal counsel Salvador Panelo said that the former president’s arrest was illegal and that police did not allow one of his lawyers to meet Duterte at the airport. Duterte, during his tenure in 2019, had withdrawn the Philippines from the ICC when the international court started investigating allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings, and the country until last year had refused to cooperate with the ICC in its investigation of the former president’s crackdown on drug cartels. As per police records, about 6,200 suspects were killed during the “war on drugs” by the erstwhile Duterte’s administration which the police say ended in shootouts. (with inputs from Reuters)
