MANILA — Before he was elected president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte already was nicknamed “The Punisher” and “Duterte Harry” for his years-long and often violent campaign against drug offenders as mayor of his hometown of Davao.

He promised to take his take-no-prisoners style of law and order to the whole of the Philippines, and his rhetoric resonated. He was swept to power with 40% of the vote in the 2016 presidential election.

“Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because I’d kill you,” he said during that campaign.

“I’ll dump all of you (criminals) into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there.”

Mr. Duterte, who turns 80 later this month, was arrested on Tuesday at Manila’s main airport on his arrival from Hong Kong at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC has said it would pursue an investigation of suspected crimes against humanity related to Duterte’s role in overseeing a bloody “war on drugs” that killed thousands of Filipinos during his 2016-2022 presidency.

Earlier this week, at a rally in Hong Kong, the firebrand Duterte declared he was ready to be arrested and said of his time in office: “What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life for the Filipino people.”

During his presidency, a nationwide drug war killed at least 6,284 accused drug dealers and users, by government count. The ICC estimates that somewhere between 12,000 and 30,000 people were killed between July 2016 and March 2019.

Philippine authorities have always denied extrajudicial killings – many of those killed were said to have died in shootouts. But rights groups and others say that Philippine police and vigilantes under their direction murdered unarmed drug suspects on a massive scale on Duterte’s watch.

In September 2021, the ICC approved a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity allegedly committed under Duterte’s leadership, but it suspended its probe in November 2021 at the request of Manila, which said it was carrying out its own investigations.

But in January, 2023, the court said it was “not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations” and prosecutors resumed their inquiry. It later rejected an appeal against that decision by the Philippines government.

‘NO EXCUSES, NO APOLOGIES’
Mr. Duterte unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s founding treaty in 2019 when it started looking into the allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings. He has always been defiant about the charges against him.

“I have nothing to hide. What I did, I did it for my country and for the young people. No excuses. No apologies. If I go to hell, so be it.” he told a congressional hearing on the drug war in 2024.

When he swept to power in 2016, Duterte drew comparisons with Donald Trump and assertive populists around the globe, a provincial city mayor with a brash style but with a common touch who defeated the establishment with pledges to crush crime.

In office, he turned his back on the country’s decades-long ties with the United States while courting China.

During a November 2016 visit to Beijing, he declined to mention an ongoing dispute with China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, even after an international tribunal backed the Philippines’ position.

Four years later, Mr. Duterte ended a pact that allowed U.S troops to operate in the Philippines, however, the withdrawal period was extended and in March he said the US must “pay” to keep the deal.

He remained deferential to Chinese claims over the shoals and reefs in the South China Sea, defying public opinion, while negotiating billions of dollars worth of aid, loans and infrastructure investment, much of which did not materialise.

His successor later re-established strong military ties with the United States.

SEVEN TIMES MAYOR
Duterte was born in 1945 on the island of Leyte. His father was a lawyer and politician and his mother was a teacher and activist. His family later moved to Davao, the Philippines’ third-most populous city.

His political star began to rise when he was appointed Davao’s vice mayor in 1986 by Corazon Aquino, who had just led the People Power revolution that ended the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Duterte’s mother led the protests that ousted the city leaders associated with Marcos.

He won the first of seven terms as mayor in 1988, with stints in the Philippines House of Representatives in 1998 and as vice mayor in 2010 to avoid term-limit rules.

Mr. Duterte claimed he transformed Davao into one of the safest cities in the country by imposing curfews, enacting city-wide smoking bans and cracking down on crime.

Critics claimed the reduction in crime was the result of vigilante killings. According to human rights groups, death squads have killed at least 1,400 people in Davao since 1998, most of them drug-pushers, addicts, petty criminals and street children.

Duterte denied any involvement in vigilante killings as mayor or as president.

But the people of Davao spoke highly of his accomplishments, including his push for clean governance, a city-wide smoking ban, and the setting up a children’s cancer ward, vaccination programmes and a modern 911 emergency services facility.

In the 2022 elections, Mr. Duterte was succeeded as president by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the former dictator, and his daughter Sara Duterte was elected vice president.

But the alliance between the Marcos and the Duterte families crumbled last year and Sara Duterte was impeached last month on accusations such as budget anomalies, amassing unusual wealth and an alleged threat to the life of Marcos. An impeachment trial could start in June.

Sara Duterte has appealed to the Supreme Court against the impeachment and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying the move to remove her from office was politically motivated. — Reuters