Duterte Arrested and Appears at the ICC—His Aura is Broken

After his shocking arrest last week by the Philippine authorities, former president Rodrigo Duterte was shipped to the Hague, where he quickly had a video appearance with a justice from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The arrest and possible prosecution are staggering for several reasons. For one, the ICC is not exactly great at getting potential war criminals and putting them on trial—their record of facilitating arrests is very weak, and many who make it to the ICC have long, drawn-out cases with many unresolved. The Philippines is not a member of the ICC, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. used Interpol to arrest Duterte instead. For many Filipinos, this development was incredible. First, as mayor of Davao, where he pioneered bloody extrajudicial drug wars, and then as president, where his wars killed thousands of innocent people, Duterte had seemed untouchable. His daughter even served as Marcos Jr.’s vice president. He retained a substantial amount of support in the southern Philippines and among some members of the legislature, and he continued to boast about his war—crimes, essentially—long after his presidency had ended.

As the New York Times noted, as far back as in Davao, “During Mr. Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao City and as president, officers and vigilantes gunned down tens of thousands of people during what was portrayed as a war on drugs, rights groups said. Some of the victims were minors, and many were not involved in the drug trade, activists say.”

Marcos Jr. did not precisely stop the drug war. Still, he seems to have decided that, despite significant popular support for the Duterte clan and Duterte’s group of political allies, it was worth it to allow Duterte to be taken down. It is a gamble since Duterte’s daughter could still win the next presidential election and has vowed to throw Marcos Jr. into the sea.

But overall, Marcos Jr. seems to have caught a wave. Overall, though Sara Duterte could be a viable presidential contender, much of the Philippine public seemed to have tired of Duterte’s antics and, looking back, taken a much harsher view of the drug “war” than they did during Duterte’s presidency when he whipped up public ferocity against drugs with his charismatic personality. Many Filipinos want to move on. And now, they just might.