Ex-president to face charges of crimes against humanity over ‘war on drugs’ that rights groups say left 30,000 dead

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has left Manila on a plane headed to The Hague, hours after he was served with an arrest warrant from the international criminal court over the killings resulting from his “war on drugs”.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr told a press conference that a plane carrying Duterte took off at 11.03pm local time on Tuesday. “The plane is en route to The Hague in the Netherlands, allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs,” he said.

The former leader, who will turn 80 this month, is accused by ICC prosecutors of crimes against humanity over his anti-drugs crackdowns, in which as many as 30,000 people were killed. Most of the victims were men in poor, urban areas who were gunned down in the streets.

  • JazzlikeDiamond558@lemm.eeEnglish
    162·
    21 hours ago

    This is not as simple matter as it seems.

    Duterte, being already of age when he took the presidency, openly said that ‘‘he is an old guy who has only this one shot to set things right’’ before he is out of the picture (and thrown under the train).

    And so the war on drugs begun. Philippines are the country of almost 100 million people and the drug world there is ruled by chinese. So one could imagine how Duterte pissed of many ‘‘influential’’ chinese. Furthermore, he did allow for controversial law to shoot any drug abusers on site, because this went on to allow every corrupt police officer/official to shoot his snitch (generally either drug user or member of the drug world) in order to protect their own corrupt asses (by shutting the mouth of possible witness).

    Things very quickly spiraled out of control and pretty soon it was difficult to hold the reins (although he managed… somehow), however, this also DID efficiently decimate the drug world and chinese influence in Philippines.

    I’m not getting into other affairs of his here, but this one is really complex and not to be judged hastily.

    On a further note, ICC should not be blowing it’s own pipes on Duterte case. Mongolia, for example, did not touch Putin, who really IS a deranged war criminal and mafia kingpin, so there are obviously… people that are ‘‘above the system’’. 80 year old Philippine president is, what Klingons would call: not honorable prey.

    Crime does not get old and this is, for sure, a good thing. But one should not rush in judgement and know that here is a lot more than meets the eye.

    • CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml
      122·
      20 hours ago

      Also worth noting that the current president, the child of a dictator, is using his support to impeach Duterte’s daughter. He also said he wouldn’t support any action of the ICC and now is.

      If this action was in isolation, it could be taken at face value, but with other manoeuvrings, it’s looking like Marco’s consolidating his grip on power.

      The other point and kind of backing up what you’ve said, is that Fillipino’s I’ve talked to have commented that drug problems in their area disappeared but used to be pretty horrible.

      I’m not one to defend crimes against human’s, but one cannot discount the level of criminality and the impact it was already having on people’s lives. Whether the tactics were fair or decent is one thing, but another is, did it work? Did it solve a serious problem the country was grappling with. You only have to look at Mexico to realise that if you don’t deal with these things, the level of murder and suffering often skyrockets.

      There should be accountability, but I’m not sure this is about accountability.