CNN
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Former Philippines 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.
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. CNN has reached out to Interpol and the ICC for comment.
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.
Duterte’s arrest and removal from the country is a stunning coda to a stormy and violent stint at the top of Philippines 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.
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.
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Updated
10:51 AM EDT, Tue March 11, 2025
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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 is vice president to Duterte’s successor and political rival, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., and 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.
Correction: This story has been corrected to clarify that the Instagram post was uploaded by Duterte’s daughter Veronica.
CNN’s Kathleen Magramo contributed reporting