Duterte refused fingerprinting during chaotic arrest, say Philippine police
The arrest of the 79-year-old former president had been ordered by the International Criminal Court.
Ex-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte threatened a police general with lawsuits, refused to be fingerprinted and told law enforcers “you have to kill me to bring me to The Hague” in a tense confrontation after his arrest in Manila, a Philippine police general has said.
The arrest of the 79-year-old former leader had been ordered by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Police Major General Nicolas Torre provided details for the first time of Tuesday’s 12-hour standoff at a Philippine air base before he and other police officers managed to get Mr Duterte onto a government-chartered jet that transported him to The Hague, Netherlands, where he was detained by the global court on charges of crimes against humanity.
Mr Duterte’s stunning reversal of fortune was celebrated by human rights groups as a historic triumph against state impunity everywhere.
Mr Duterte was arrested on Tuesday after he arrived at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport with his common-law wife, daughter and friends from Hong Kong.
He was later taken under heavy police guard to a nearby presidential lounge at the Villamor Air Base to undergo booking for arrested criminal suspects, including fingerprinting, before being taken to a plane for the long flight to The Hague to be turned over to the ICC, Maj Gen Torre said.
The standoff lasted for about 12 hours, he said.
“It was very tense,” he told The Associated Press.
“One of my officers sustained a head injury after being hit hard with a cellphone” by Mr Duterte’s common-law wife “and his daughter was cursing me with expletives, but I kept my cool”.
The ex-president, who used to be a government prosecutor and congressman, refused to undergo the police booking procedure after his arrest, Maj Gen Torre said.
In a separate interview, he said that he arrested and handcuffed the former president’s executive secretary for blocking Mr Duterte’s transfer to the plane.
Maj Gen Torre confirmed to the AP the authenticity of a video that has gone viral on social media showing Mr Duterte surrounded by his family, lawyers and friends and asking Maj Gen Torre, who led the arresting officers: “Are you going to bring me straight to the airplane?”
“You have to kill me to bring me to The Hague,” Maj Gen Torre quoted Mr Duterte as saying.
“That’s not our intention sir,” Maj Gen Torre said as his men dragged away one of several men surrounding Mr Duterte.
Mr Duterte’s lawyers said that Philippine authorities did not show any copy of the ICC warrant and violated his constitutional rights.
“Our own government has surrendered a Filipino citizen — even a former president at that — to foreign powers,” vice president Sara Duterte, the ex-president’s daughter, said on Tuesday before her father was flown out of Manila.
“This is a blatant affront to our sovereignty and an insult to every Filipino who believes in our nation’s independence,” she said.
“This is not justice — this is oppression and persecution.”
Mr Marcos appeared on nationwide television around midnight shortly after Mr Duterte was flown out and denied the allegations of the vice president, who has had a bitter falling out with him after their whirlwind political alliance as running mates in the 2022 elections crumbled.
Mr Duterte carved a political name decades ago with his violent approach to criminality and his profanities, which became a trademark of his political persona especially when threatening to kill drug dealers as part of his war on illegal drugs that left thousands dead in his long years in power.
