Former President Rodrigo Duterte is accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of up to 30,000 people during his war on drug trade.
By Jonah McKeown, Catholic News Agency
Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines who was rebuked by Catholic leaders for overseeing thousands of extrajudicial killings, has been arrested on a warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.
Duterte, 79, was detained shortly after landing at Manila’s international airport on a flight from Hong Kong, NPR reported. The outspoken former mayor of the city of Davao won election to the presidency in 2016 in large part because of his pledge to be tough on crime, especially the illegal drug trade.
As president, Duterte reportedly dispatched police “death squads” nationwide to carry out extrajudicial executions of suspected drug dealers and drug users, which attracted worldwide attention and criticism.
Prosecutor: Duterte responsible for tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings
The United Nations investigated Duterte’s tactics during his drug war beginning in 2018 and concluded in 2020 that young men in poor and urban areas were being routinely gunned down in the street by police without any due process. Testimonies and reports gathered over the years suggest that the police were incentivized to carry out the extrajudicial killings with financial rewards.
Estimates vary widely, but the Philippine government has officially acknowledged just 6,248 deaths due to the anti-drug campaign. However, the ICC prosecutor has said the death toll could be as high as 30,000, Reuters reported.
Duterte in 2019 withdrew the Philippines from the treaty that created the ICC in order to avoid an investigation into the drug war, but the ICC has reiterated that it retains jurisdiction over crimes committed when the Philippines was still a member, AsiaNews reported.
Catholic bishops welcome developments in the ICC case
The country’s Catholic bishops had long been vocal in their opposition to Duterte, including his “war on drugs,” and opposed his call in 2020 to reinstate the death penalty for illegal drug use and other crimes.
In a March 11 statement, Caritas Philippines, the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, welcomed the developments in the ICC case against Duterte. The group appealed to Duterte’s supporters and political allies to “set aside personal loyalty and choose to stand with the rule of law” over and above partisan interests.
“These killings were not random; they were part of a policy that violated the fundamental right to life,” emphasized Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, vice president of Caritas Philippines.
“The families of the victims deserve truth, reparations, and justice. As a nation, we must ensure that such crimes never happen again.”
Duterte was openly hostile to religion and to the Catholic Church — to which the vast majority of Filipinos belong — during his time in office.
In a September 2021 pastoral message, the archbishops of Nueva Segovia, Lingayen-Dagupan, and Tuguegarao in northern Luzon lamented the spate of drug-related killings in the country and attacks on journalists, members of the political opposition, lawyers, activists, and priests. The bishops urged the faithful to resist the “culture of murder and plunder.”
In 2020, four bishops and two priests were accused of attempting to overthrow Duterte, but the charges were dropped. And several Catholic priests and Catholic laypeople who were arrested under Duterte’s administration for criticizing the drug war were later acquitted in 2023.
Featured image: Father Flavie Villanueva embraces Melinda Lafuente, as she holds the urn with the remains of her son, Angelo Lafuente, during an interment ceremony for victims of extrajudicial killings, at the Shrine of Healing in Manila, Philippines, March 12, 2025, the day after the arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Philippine police arrested Duterte March 11 in Manila and sent him by plane to the Netherlands to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, President Ferdinand Marcos said. (OSV News photo/Lisa Marie David, Reuters)
