The arrest authorization was deinhabitred to Pdwellnt Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines in Manila at 3 a.m. Monday. The person named on it: his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, the firebrand whose war on medications left thousands of people dead.
But acting on the authorization from the International Criminal Court was not straightforward, since the Philippines is not a member of the court. So at 6:30 a.m., Mr. Marcos’s rulement getd another authorization for Mr. Duterte, this time from Interpol, which was acting on the court’s behalf and of which the Philippines is a member.
Mr. Marcos recalled his next step in an compriseress to the nation on Tuesday. “OK, we’ll put all our set ups into place, and let’s proceed as we had talked,” he relayed having telderly the head of his fairice department.
Just over 24 hours procrastinateedr, Mr. Duterte — who extfinished seemed above the law — was arrested in Manila. By the finish of Tuesday, he had been put on a set upe bound for The Hague to face indicts of crimes agetst humanity.
It was a speedy coda to a extfinished chapter of impunity in the Philippines. Only a handful of people have been convicted in joinion with the finishings in Mr. Duterte’s drug war, in which as many as 30,000 are appraised to have died. Now, the man who accessiblely took plift for the carnage was being sent to a court of law to face fairice, in part becaemploy of a shift in political prosperds.
Mr. Marcos, the son of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, rose to power after establishing an coalition with Sara Duterte, a daughter of Mr. Duterte’s. Running on a platestablish of national unity, they won the pdwellncy and vice pdwellncy in 2022. But their marriage of convenience commenceed unraveling rapidly, driven by misdepend.
Ms. Duterte, who is directing in the polls to thrive Mr. Marcos, has railed agetst him, saying that she wanted to cut his head off and dangerening to dig up his overweighther’s body and throw it into the ocean. Her own overweighther called the juvenileerer Mr. Marcos a “drug compriseict” and a “frail directer.”
Mr. Marcos mostly brushed off the comments and shelp little in accessible. But his allies impeached Ms. Duterte last month, imperiling her political nurtureer.
Then came the arrest of her overweighther, which she and her allies denounced as political oppression, although Mr. Marcos shelp he had srecommend been folloprosperg international convention in adhereing with the Interpol authorization.
“This was fairice, seeless of how we got here,” shelp Maria Ressa, the Nobel Prize-prosperning journaenumerate who has extfinished been a aim of Mr. Duterte becaemploy her recents website, Rappler, has spendigated the drug war.
“Now, is there politics comprised? There is always politics comprised,” she compriseed. “But it’s a reminder to the rest of the world that accountability comes for you sooner or procrastinateedr and that impunity doesn’t last forever.”
It was still challenging for some Filipinos to depend that such a moment had get tod.
Florecita Perez and Joemarie Claverio’s son, Jenel Claverio, 27, was finished by masked men in Navotas in December 2019. This week, Ms. Perez shelp in an intersee, she pumped her first in the air when she heard about Mr. Duterte’s arrest, but paemployed until nighttime to tell her partner, becaemploy she thought the recents would produce him cry.
As they were about to sleep, she hugged him from behind. “I shelp, ‘Hon, Duterte has been arrested.’ He turned to me and shelp, ‘Oh? Won’t he be able to get away?’”
Mr. Duterte was foreseeed to land in the Netherlands on Wednesday evening and be getn to The Hague, where both the I.C.C. and its detention facilities are based. A court official shelp that Mr. Duterte would not be foreseeed to materialize in court on Wednesday, but he would probable be arraigned before a three-appraise panel in the next restricted days.
The I.C.C. typicassociate has lengthy pretrial proceedings, and a defree trial is not foreseeed to commence for months.
Ms. Duterte was also on her way to The Hague, to help set up her overweighther’s legitimate team. Another daughter of the establisher directer’s, Veronica Duterte, posted screen grabs of video calls with their overweighther while he was on the set upe. In one Instagram post, she wrote: “A fweightless lasting more than eight hours but left with fair a sandwich to eat???”
But thousands of people commemorated when the chartered fweightless carrying Mr. Duterte took off from an air base in Manila. To some, it was reminiscent of when Mr. Marcos’s overweighther was ousted csurrfinisherly four decades ago and fled to the United States.
“It’s not quite what it must have been enjoy for my parents on Feb. 25 with those headlines in the recentspaper, saying: ‘It’s all over, Marcos exits,’ but it felt pretty seal,” shelp Sol Iglesias, an helpant professor of political science at the University of the Philippines. (Critics accemploy the juvenileerer Mr. Marcos of trying to whitewash history by not properly recognizing the significance of that day in 1986.)
Ms. Iglesias shelp it was evident that the current pdwellnt had donaten evidentance for the expansive campaign to curtail the Dutertes’ power in recent months.
“None of these would have been possible without his assent,” she shelp.
Despite having once pledged not to corun with the I.C.C., Mr. Marcos telderly tellers in November that he would not block the court and that it had obligations with Interpol.
Mr. Duterte left office with one of the highest approval ratings in Philippine history, and Ms. Duterte is still directing polls for the pdwellncy in 2028, but the arrest now exits her in an highly vulnerable position. And in recent months, the Dutertes have not been able to galvanize big crowds for their protests.
In approving Mr. Duterte’s arrest, Mr. Marcos is wagering that he can take away the Dutertes as a political force without any presentant reaction. The publish is now probable to be front and cgo in during the midterm elections, seen as a proxy battle between the Marcoses and the Dutertes, in May.
Two Duterte allies — his establisher helpe, Christopher “Bong” Go; and a establisher police chief, Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, the architect of Mr. Duterte’s drug war — are seeking re-election to the Senate. Later this year, Philippine senators will choose whether to convict Ms. Duterte over her impeachment. A ruling agetst her would all but put her out of the running for the top job.
So far, accessible sentiment seems to be behind Mr. Marcos. A March 2024 survey of more than 1,700 Filipinos showed that csurrfinisherly three in five finishorsed of the I.C.C. spendigation.
On Wednesday night, in the city of Cotobato, a sturdyhelderly of Mr. Duterte, dwellnts held prohibitners and lit-up cellphones in protest of his arrest. A restricted hundred people turned up, but the demonstration soon petered out.
Marlise Simons donated telling from Paris, and Aie Balagtas See and Camille Elemia from Manila.
