Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
| Part of the International Criminal Court investigation in the Philippines | |
Photograph of Salvador Medialdea and Duterte (right) distributed by Bong Go, on board the jet to The Hague on 11 March 2025. | |
| Date | March 11, 2025 |
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| Location | Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Pasay, Philippines |
| Cause | Alleged crimes against humanity perpetuated by the Duterte administration during the Philippine drug war, charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) |
| Participants | Philippine National Police (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) Interpol Philippine Center on Transnational Crimes |
| Arrests | Rodrigo Duterte |
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Personal 16th President of the Philippines Tenure
Post-presidency |
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Early political career
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On March 11, 2025, former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the Philippine National Police and Interpol in Operation Pursuit under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant charging him with crimes against humanity related to the Philippine drug war. Duterte arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila on March 11 after attending a political rally in Hong Kong. Once the warrant was executed, he was held in custody at the nearby Villamor Air Base and then transferred to the Netherlands, where he is expected to face trial in The Hague. The operation was largely planned by police general Nicolas Torre.
Duterte was indicted on charges of crimes against humanity, which include extrajudicial killings during his tenure as Mayor of Davao City and as President of the Philippines, until the country's withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2019. He is the fifth Philippine president to be indicted and arrested, following Emilio Aguinaldo (1945), Jose P. Laurel (1945), Joseph Estrada (2001), and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2011). He is also the first Philippine president to face an international tribunal and the first leader from Asia to face trial before the ICC.
Duterte was arrested amid an escalating feud between the Marcos and Duterte political families, although President Bongbong Marcos himself expressed melancholy regarding the arrest. Analysts have described Duterte's arrest and surrender to the ICC as remarkably quick and trouble-free, as well as a "seismic" precedent-setting event that could inform how other criminally charged world leaders would potentially be arrested.