Philippine drug-war survivors: Duterte’s ICC arrest marks first step toward justice

UPDATED at 12:21 p.m. ET on 2025-03-13

For families of Filipinos who were killed in Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, the former Philippine president’s arrest and swift transfer to the International Criminal Court marked a long-awaited step toward justice. 

Duterte arrived on Wednesday in the Netherlands, where he was to be placed into custody of the world court. The day before, Philippine authorities put him on a chartered flight bound for Rotterdam via Dubai, following his arrest on an ICC warrant in Manila earlier on Tuesday.

“When I heard [Duterte] was arrested and was being taken [to the ICC], I was very happy. I jumped for joy,” said Jane Lee, her eyes welling with tears. 

Her husband Michael was among the thousands of suspected narcotics dealers or addicts who died in the so-called “drug war” waged during Duterte’s presidency (2016-22). 

“I wanted to see my children right away because I was at work. I wanted to hug my three children and tell them that ‘finally the day I and the other families are hoping for’ has arrived,” she said. 

Lee was among a group of widows and mothers of victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs), who joined a news conference Wednesday at a church in Quezon City, Metro Manila, to air their views on the ex-president’s historic arrest.  

Many of the families had been living in fear of reprisals from corrupt police officials who took part in Duterte’s drug war launched immediately after he won a six-year term in 2016. 

Human rights groups said that as many as 20,000 suspected drug pushers and addicts were slain in the drug war, although official police figures put the death toll at more than 6,000. Many victims had been taken off the official list because they were classified as “deaths under investigation,” according to rights groups. 

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Emily Soriano, who was also at the press conference, had been joining anti-Duterte marches since her 16-year-old son Angelito was killed in a police operation soon after Duterte took office.

Her son, a grade 8 student, was at a friend’s house in late December 2016 when masked men entered and shot them, in what could have been a case of mistaken identity.

Angelito was among seven people killed by masked men believed to be vigilantes with ties to the police.

She urged the public to support their fight for justice. 

“All the victims of Duterte and his cops, we hope you join us. Do not be afraid. We are just a few, but here we are speaking up to let the public know that you can join us,” Soriano said. 

Seated beside Soriano was Llore Pasco, whose two sons were EJK victims a year into Duterte’s presidency, and Jane Lee.

Lee said the last time she saw her husband alive was on March 20, 2017, when he had asked her to pick up their children from school because he would be home late. Two vigilantes on a motorcycle shot Michael dead that day.

Neither she nor Michael had used drugs, Lee said, although a relative of her husband was a known drug peddler. 

After the incident, Lee said her family had to move to another place. She also had to take on a job and provide for her children. 

“What we went through was really hard,” Lee said. “So, whenever they [Duterte supporters] say that he was a victim, I am seething in anger because we were the ones truly victimized by violence.”

“Now tell us who are the real victims here? Why do we need to do this? To go in front of the media and tell our story repeatedly? That is not an easy thing to do,” Lee also said.

Pasco’s sons – Crisanto and Juan Carlos – went missing one day in May 2017. The next day, they learned from local television news that the two, both suspected drug users, were killed in a robbery, police said.

“I am very happy that [Duterte] was arrested. But that’s just the start. It is a long road to justice, because he still has to face a trial,” she said.

Crimes against humanity

Lawyers for Duterte had sought a restraining order to fight off the ICC warrant.

But on Wednesday, the Philippine Supreme Court rejected their 94-page petition, saying the petitioners had “failed to establish a clear and unmistakable right for an issuance of a TRO.” 

Two of Duterte’s children, Sebastian and Veronica, also filed a separate petition to compel the government to return him. These petitions, however, are likely moot and academic, with the ICC not expected to repatriate Duterte unless he is cleared of the charges.

Meanwhile, the office of Vice President Sara Duterte, the former president’s daughter, announced that she had left the country to be near him in The Hague.

Her 79-year-old father is accused of “crimes against humanity” in connection with his drug war and dating back to 2011, when he was the mayor of southern Davao city.

The ex-leader has insisted that the Philippines should not recognize the ICC because during his term, Manila withdrew from a statute that established the world court. His lawyers have said that his arrest – the first of a Philippine president – was illegal.

From the executive jet that was flying him to the Netherlands, the former Philippine strongman sent a video message to his supporters that was posted on the Facebook page of Sen. Christopher Go, an aide to the ex-president.

“Whatever happened in the past, I am fronting for the police and the military … I have told you, I will protect you and I will take the responsibility for everything,” Duterte said in a mix of English interspersed with Tagalog. “This will be a long legal proceeding(s) and I say to you, I will continue to serve my country. So be it, if that is my destiny. Salamat.”

After the plane landed in Rotterdam, the Philippine consulate in the Netherlands said in a statement that it provided consular assistance to the former president and supplied him with winter clothing “in view of the winter season,” a change of clothes, and care packages.  

On Tuesday night, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that the Philippines had complied with the ICC arrest warrant for Duterte and put him on the flight to Rotterdam.

“[The International Criminal Police Organization] asked for help, and we obliged because we have commitments to Interpol which we have to fulfill. If we don’t do that, they will not – they will no longer help us with other cases involving Filipino fugitives abroad,” Marcos told a news conference minutes after a chartered executive jet took off from Manila late Tuesday night with Duterte aboard.

“This is what the international community expects of us as the leader of a democratic country that is part of the community of nations,” he said.

And late Wednesday, the office of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan issued a statement about Duterte’s arrest and alleging that he had founded and led a death squad in Davao.

Based on “its independent and impartial investigations, the Office of the Prosecutor alleges that Mr. Duterte, as founder and head of the Davao Death Squad, then Mayor of Davao City, and subsequently as the President of the Philippines, is criminally responsible for the crime against humanity of murder … committed in the Philippines between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019,” Khan said.  

“Mr. Duterte is alleged to have committed these crimes as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population.”

The statement went on to say that the office was “now commencing preparations towards the initial appearance and subsequent judicial proceedings before the Court.” 

An earlier version incorrectly reported that Sen. Christopher Go was traveling on the same plane as Duterte.