The arrest warrant was delivered to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines in Manila at 3 a.m. Tuesday. The particular person named on it: his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, the firebrand whose struggle on medication left hundreds of individuals useless.
However appearing on the warrant from the Worldwide Legal Court docket was not easy, because the Philippines isn’t a member of the court docket. So at 6:30 a.m., Mr. Marcos’s authorities obtained one other warrant for Mr. Duterte, this time from Interpol, which was appearing on the court docket’s behalf and of which the Philippines is a member.
Mr. Marcos recalled his subsequent step in an handle to the nation on Tuesday. “OK, we’ll put all our plans into place, and let’s proceed as we had mentioned,” he relayed having advised the top of his justice division.
Only a few hours later, Mr. Duterte — who lengthy appeared above the regulation — was arrested in Manila. By the top of the day, he had been placed on a aircraft certain for The Hague to face expenses of crimes towards humanity.
It was a swift coda to a protracted chapter of impunity within the Philippines. Solely a handful of individuals have been convicted in reference to the killings in Mr. Duterte’s drug struggle, during which as many as 30,000 are estimated to have died. Now, the person who publicly took credit score for the carnage was being despatched to a court docket of regulation to face justice, partly due to a shift in political winds.
Mr. Marcos, the son of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, rose to energy after forming an alliance with Sara Duterte, a daughter of Mr. Duterte’s. Operating on a platform of nationwide unity, they received the presidency and vice presidency in 2022. However their marriage of comfort began unraveling shortly, pushed by distrust.
Ms. Duterte, who’s main within the polls to succeed Mr. Marcos, has railed towards him, saying that she wished to lower his head off and threatening to dig up his father’s physique and throw it into the ocean. Her personal father referred to as the youthful Mr. Marcos a “drug addict” and a “weak chief.”
Mr. Marcos largely disregarded the feedback and mentioned little in public. However his allies impeached Ms. Duterte final month, imperiling her political profession.
Then got here the arrest of her father, which she and her allies denounced as political oppression, though Mr. Marcos mentioned he had merely been following worldwide conference in complying with the Interpol warrant.
“This was justice, no matter how we bought right here,” mentioned Maria Ressa, the Nobel Prize-winning journalist who has lengthy been a goal of Mr. Duterte as a result of her information web site, Rappler, has investigated the drug struggle.
“Now, is there politics concerned? There may be at all times politics concerned,” she added. “But it surely’s a reminder to the remainder of the world that accountability comes for you eventually and that impunity doesn’t final perpetually.”
It was nonetheless exhausting for some Filipinos to consider that such a second had arrived.
Florecita Perez and Joemarie Claverio’s son, Jenel Claverio, 27, was killed by masked males in Navotas in December 2019. This week, Ms. Perez mentioned in an interview, she pumped her first within the air when she heard about Mr. Duterte’s arrest, however waited till nighttime to inform her associate, as a result of she thought the information would make him cry.
As they have been about to sleep, she hugged him from behind. “I mentioned, ‘Hon, Duterte has been arrested.’ He turned to me and mentioned, ‘Oh? Received’t he be capable of get away?’”
Mr. Duterte landed within the Netherlands on Wednesday night, and he was to be taken to The Hague, the place each the I.C.C. and its detention amenities are primarily based. A court docket official mentioned that Mr. Duterte wouldn’t be anticipated to seem in court docket on Wednesday, however he would seemingly be arraigned earlier than a three-judge panel within the subsequent few days.
The I.C.C. usually has prolonged pretrial proceedings, and a deliberate trial isn’t anticipated to start out for months.
Ms. Duterte was additionally on her strategy to The Hague, to assist arrange her father’s authorized staff. One other daughter of the previous chief’s, Veronica Duterte, posted display grabs of video calls with their father whereas he was on the aircraft. In a single Instagram submit, she wrote: “A flight lasting greater than eight hours however left with only a sandwich to eat???”
However hundreds of individuals rejoiced when the chartered flight carrying Mr. Duterte took off from an air base in Manila. To some, it was harking back to when Mr. Marcos’s father was ousted practically 4 a long time in the past and fled to america.
“It’s not fairly what it should have been like for my mother and father on Feb. 25 with these headlines within the newspaper, saying: ‘It’s throughout, Marcos leaves,’ however it felt fairly shut,” mentioned Sol Iglesias, an assistant professor of political science on the College of the Philippines. (Critics accuse the youthful Mr. Marcos of attempting to whitewash historical past by not correctly recognizing the importance of that day in 1986.)
Ms. Iglesias mentioned it was clear that the present president had given clearance for the broad marketing campaign to curtail the Dutertes’ energy in current months.
“None of those would have been doable with out his assent,” she mentioned.
Regardless of having as soon as pledged to not cooperate with the I.C.C., Mr. Marcos advised reporters in November that he wouldn’t block the court docket and that it had obligations with Interpol.
Mr. Duterte left workplace with one of many highest approval scores in Philippine historical past, and Ms. Duterte remains to be main polls for the presidency in 2028, however the arrest now leaves her in a extremely weak place. And in current months, the Dutertes haven’t been in a position to provoke giant crowds for his or her protests.
In approving Mr. Duterte’s arrest, Mr. Marcos is playing that he can remove the Dutertes as a political drive with none main backlash. The problem is now prone to be entrance and middle in the course of the midterm elections, seen as a proxy battle between the Marcoses and the Dutertes, in Could.
Two Duterte allies — his former aide, Christopher “Bong” Go; and a former police chief, Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, the architect of Mr. Duterte’s drug struggle — are searching for re-election to the Senate. Later this yr, Philippine senators will resolve whether or not to convict Ms. Duterte over her impeachment. A ruling towards her would all however put her out of the working for the highest job.
To date, public sentiment appears to be behind Mr. Marcos. A March 2024 survey of greater than 1,700 Filipinos confirmed that just about three in 5 authorised of the I.C.C. investigation.
On Wednesday night time, within the metropolis of Cotobato, a stronghold of Mr. Duterte, residents held banners and lit-up cellphones in protest of his arrest. A number of hundred folks turned up, however the demonstration quickly petered out.
Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris, and Aie Balagtas See and Camille Elemia from Manila.
