politics
Philippine Senator Says He Will Fight ICC Arrest Warrant
A Philippine senator wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity said he will contest any effort to send him to The Hague. The ICC unsealed an arrest warrant charging him with murder in connection with the country's anti-drug campaign from 2016 to 2018. Officials indicated the Philippines is prepared to enforce the warrant under existing law.
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A Philippine senator wanted by the International Criminal Court said Tuesday he will fight any attempt to send him to the global tribunal for prosecution. He added that he never condoned extrajudicial killings when he led the country's police force.
The ICC in The Hague unsealed an arrest warrant Monday for the senator, a former national police chief. The warrant charges him with the crime against humanity of murder of no less than 32 persons allegedly committed between July 2016 and the end of April 2018 in the Philippines.
The warrant was originally issued in November. "If I have something to answer for, I will face those in our local courts and not before foreigners," the senator told reporters in the Senate. The Senate took him into protective custody Monday when he reappeared after months of absence.
He pleaded to the president not to send him to The Hague. "I will avail of all legal processes," he said. After winning the presidency in 2016, former President Rodrigo Duterte designated the senator as head of the national police force. The force enforced the anti-drug campaign that left thousands of mostly petty suspects dead.
The senator had also once headed the police force in the southern city of Davao. "My role was to lead the war on drugs, and that war on drugs was not meant to annihilate people," the senator said when asked about the death toll. "When the lives of police officers came under threat, of course they needed to defend themselves," he added.
Duterte's six-year term ended in mid-2022. He was arrested in March 2025 and is detained by the ICC in the Netherlands awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity connected to the crackdown. Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019.
