Seoul Gazette - Arrested former Philippine president Duterte's lawyers demand his return

The plane taking the 79-year-old to the Netherlands resumed its journey after a stopover of several hours in Dubai on Wednesday, a flight tracking site said.

It was not possible to confirm if Duterte was still on the privately owned aircraft.

Duterte faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder", according to the ICC, for a crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

On Wednesday morning, his lawyers filed a Supreme Court petition -- on behalf of his youngest daughter Veronica -- accusing the government of "kidnapping" Duterte and demanding it "bring him back".

"The ICC can only exercise its jurisdiction if a country's national legal system is not functioning," lawyer Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. told reporters outside the court, insisting the Philippines' judicial system was "working properly".

But presidential palace press officer Claire Castro said cooperating with Interpol was the government's prerogative.

"This is not just surrendering a Filipino citizen, this is surrendering a Filipino citizen who is accused of crimes against humanity, specifically murder," she said.

- 'Bloody war' -

At a church in the capital, some of those whose family members were killed in the "drug war" discussed the arrest.

"Duterte is fortunate, there's due process for him," Emily Soriano said of her son Angelito, at a press briefing organised by a local rights group.

"There was no due process for my son. He will be lying down on a good bed, my son is already rotting at the cemetery."

Duterte was arrested Tuesday morning after "Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC", the presidential palace said.

An ICC spokesman later confirmed the warrant and said an initial appearance hearing would be scheduled when Duterte was in the court's custody.

President Ferdinand Marcos announced his predecessor's departure on Tuesday evening.

"The plane is en route to The Hague in the Netherlands, allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs," Marcos said.

Before her father's departure, Vice President Sara Duterte said he was being "forcibly taken to The Hague", labelling the transfer "oppression and persecution".

Her office issued a statement Wednesday saying she had flown to Amsterdam, without offering further details.

On Tuesday night, the former president said he believed the Philippine Supreme Court would prevent his transfer.

"We do not have an extradition treaty," Duterte said on an Instagram broadcast shortly before leaving Manila. But no reprieve materialised.

While supporters dubbed his arrest "unlawful", those who opposed Duterte's drug war were jubilant.

"The mothers whose husbands and children were killed because of the drug war are very happy," said Rubilyn Litao of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a group supporting mothers of those killed in the crackdown.

"They have been waiting for this for a very long time."

- A long road -

The Philippines quit the ICC in 2019 on Duterte's instructions.

But the tribunal maintained it had jurisdiction over killings up to then, including ones in the southern city of Davao when Duterte was mayor.

It launched a formal inquiry in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred drug operations that led to deaths.

The probe resumed in July 2023 after a five-judge panel rejected the Philippines' objection that the court lacked jurisdiction.

Following that decision, the Marcos government repeatedly said it would not cooperate with the investigation -- but recently reversed course, saying it would be "obliged to follow" should Interpol ask for assistance.

A one-time alliance between Marcos and the Duterte family has exploded spectacularly since the 2022 presidential election, when Sara Duterte run as vice president on his ticket.

The vice president is currently facing a Senate trial on a number of charges, including corruption and an alleged assassination plot against Marcos.

S.Seo--SG