The Philippines will not intervene if Interpol arrests Duterte over ‘war on drugs’

The Philippines has said it will not intervene if Interpol issues a red notice to arrest former president Rodrigo Duterte over his bloody “war on drugs.”

It was an action against narcotics, in which approximately 6,000 people were officially killed during Duterte’s controversial “war on drugs.”which started when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao, and expanded after his election as president in 2016.

But human rights groups estimate the actual death toll during his presidency alone could be more than 20,000, as thousands of people died under mysterious circumstances.

While police insist they killed only in self-defense, there are widespread reports that they acted with impunity, faked crime scenes and systematically shot unarmed suspects.

Amid worldwide condemnation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an official investigation in 2021after a three-year “preliminary investigation”.

Duterte had withdrawn the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, but the court said prosecutors still have jurisdiction over alleged crimes that occurred before the withdrawal.

Now for the first time, the government has said it will cooperate with the ICC – the court of last resort for crimes that countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute – after resuming a stalled investigation into Mr. Duterte last year.

“If the ICC refers the case to Interpol, which can then issue a red notice to the Philippine authorities, the government will feel obliged to consider the red notice as a request that must be honored,” said Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the highest cabinet member. , said Wednesday.

He added that the Duterte administration would neither object nor block him if he chose to surrender.

The comments came after the former president — whose daughter is currently the vice president on a ticket headed by the scion of another major political dynasty, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., with whom she has feuded — faced a hearing in Congress on the bloody crackdown, where he gave conflicting statements about whether he would submit to an ICC investigation.

The optimistic, brash-speaking politician said he would physically kick any ICC investigator who came across him.

The 79-year-old also said: “The ICC doesn’t scare me one bit. They can come here any moment.

“I ask the ICC to hurry up and come here and start the investigation tomorrow. This issue has been hanging around for years and I may already be dying. If I’m found guilty, I can go to jail and rot there forever.”

Earlier committee hearings earlier last month alleged that Mr Duterte’s office had paid police up to 1 million pesos (£13,200) per killing during the crackdown, depending on the target. He denies the claims but has admitted that during his tenure as mayor of Davao, he maintained a “death squad” of criminals to kill other criminals.

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