Squiz Shortcuts - Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's arrest

Your Shortcut to… Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested this week for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his “war on drugs”. The International Criminal Court claims that tens of thousands of people were killed as a result of Duterte’s crackdown while he was leader. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll get you across:

• his time as president

• his arrest

• and his enduring popularity in the Philippines

  

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Squiz the Shortcut

Who is Rodrigo Duterte?
He was the Philippine president from 2016 until 2022, and he was elected on the promise that he’d make the Asian country of 115 million people crime-free within 6 months. That’s an unusually ambitious target, but it’s fair to say Duterte was an unusual presidential candidate.

Why is that?
At 71yo he rode a motorbike on the campaign trail, kept a gold revolver on his desk as a paperweight, and, as part of his promise to “clean up” crime, he said there would need to be more funeral parlours built, rather than prisons, to cope with drug dealers if he was elected.

So he was a tough talker
Yep, but it wasn’t all talk… Before he went for the presidency, he worked as a prosecutor, and after that he was the mayor of the southern coastal city of Davao, which, prior to him taking the job, had a reputation as “the Nicaragua of Asia”.

What does that mean?
It’s a reference to the poverty, gang violence, and heavy reliance on income from illegal drugs that the Central American country has had for decades… But when Duterte came in, he took a hardline approach to the problem. 

How did he tackle it?
He allegedly ran “death squads” of criminal vigilantes - which he referred to as “peace keepers” - to hunt down and kill suspected drug dealers, pushers, and addicts. Human Rights Watch says that resulted in more than 1,000 people killed, including street children. But Duterte claimed to have turned the city into one of the safest places in the Philippines.

Did he use that in his campaign for president?
He sure did… His time as mayor earned him the nicknames “the punisher” and “Duterte Harry” - a play on Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character - and he went into the election with that reputation and the campaign slogan: Change is coming…

Did change come?
Did it ever… Duterte won in 2016 by a landslide, and started his “war on drugs” straight away. His initial method was to send police to the homes of drug dealers, addicts, and couriers, where they’d knock and give suspects a chance to surrender. But if they resisted or fought back, he gave police permission to shoot in self defence - and there’s since been claims that many officers abused their power, in some cases killing suspects without questioning them, and then planting evidence on their bodies.

Yikes…
Enquiries were started when the body count started to rise… Reports from the period of his early presidency give accounts from locals saying it was a nightly occurrence to find the bodies of young men and children from Manila’s slums lying in the street with packets of drugs in their pockets and signs next to them saying “drug user”.

Did anyone question what was happening?
Critics said his war on drugs was more like a “war on the poor” because it was mainly small-time drug pushers and petty criminals that were killed without trial, and that it had little-to-no impact on the king-pins. But out of the thousands allegedly murdered, only a handful of cases against police resulted in convictions.

How many people died?
At the end of his term, the government put the number of deaths from the crackdown at around 6,200. But human rights authorities say the total is much higher, and more likely between 12,000 and 30,000 people. They’re the numbers alleged by the International Criminal Court - the ICC - which opened an official investigation into the deaths in 2019, prompting Duterte to remove the Philippines from the court. 

When he was arrested?
Duterte was arrested by the ICC in the Philippine capital of Manila on Tuesday when he flew in from Hong Kong. There was some doubt over whether the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jnr (who goes by the first name Bongbong), would allow him to be extradited to The Hague in the Netherlands where the court conducts trials, but Marcos said he was “obliged to comply” with international expectations.

What charges is he facing?
He’s accused of crimes against humanity allegedly committed between July 2016 and March 2019. The arrest is a dramatic development in a long-running political tussle between the Duterte and the Marcos families in the Philippines…

Wait, there’s beef between Duterte and Marcos?
A juicy ribeye’s worth… The name Marcos might ring a bell because Bongbong is the son of former president Ferdinand Marcos, who was in power from 1965 to 1986.

That’s a long time
It is, but his presidency ended controversially with claims the family had stolen millions from the government to fund a lavish lifestyle - which is a whole other story - and they had to escape Manila… 

Where did they go?
They sought exile in Hawaii, and after they were overthrown, the presidential palace was opened up to the people. One thing that was a real feature of the headlines from the time was the wardrobe and shoe collection of the first lady, Bongbong’s mother, Imelda Marcos. There was a big deal made about the fact she owned about 3,000 pairs, which fuelled public resentment toward the family… But back to Duterte - politics runs in the family for him too…

There’s another Duterte in politics?
Yep… his daughter Sara is the Vice President under Bongbong, and she’s tipped to run for president when his term is up in 2028. They dropped their 60-year family rivalry to form a powerful alliance on the ticket in the 2022 election, which they won. But the relationship has deteriorated since, and you might remember that last year Sara was investigated for making a death threat against Marcos.

She was?
In November, she posted on Facebook that she’d spoken to an assassin, and that in the event she’s killed, she’d given instructions to the assassin to go after “BBM” - that’s Marcos - and she’s also publicly said she dreams of cutting off his head.

So, things have turned sour…
Big time - even more so now that Marcos has handed her father over to the ICC.

What’s likely to happen to Duterte at The Hague?
It’s a case of wait and see - but in the past, he’s offered no apologies for his actions. At an inquiry last October into deaths connected with the war on drugs, he said: “I did what I had to do, and whether you believe it or not, I did it for my country”. 

What has the reaction been?
Human rights groups have welcomed his arrest, including the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, who said it was an “historic day” that marked the “beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his brutal rule.” 

How about the public?
He still has a lot of support in the Philippines, where many believe his actions were justified and that he greatly reduced the country’s drug crime. Reports say he was planning to use his popularity to run again for mayor in Davao in the May elections…

He might have to rethink those plans now…
Stay tuned.

Onto our Recommendations

Watching/Listening: This episode of the ABC’s If You’re Listening podcast on the background to the family feud between Rodrigo ‘Roddy’ Duterte and Bongbong Marcos…

Listening/Reading: Our Squiz Shortcut to the ICC. It’ll explain its role in the world, how it works, and whether it's effective.

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