AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now to the Philippines. Former President Rodrigo Duterte is being flown to The Hague after being arrested in Manila Tuesday for crimes against humanity on an International Criminal Court warrant. The ICC has been investigating Duterte since 2018 over his extrajudicial so-called war on drugs, that the U.N. estimates killed over 8,600 people. Human rights groups in the Philippines say the death toll is more like 30,000 people. Many children were among those killed.

Last year, the former president admitted under oath that he oversaw a “death squad” of gangsters while he served as mayor of the southern city of Davao.

RODRIGO DUTERTE: [translated] I have a death squad. A death squad. Seven of them. But they are not the police. They were gangsters. I command one of the gangsters, “Kill that, because if you don’t, I will kill you.”

AMY GOODMAN: Duterte, now 79 years old, served as prosecutor, vice mayor, then mayor of Davao before serving as the president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. Back in 2016, he compared himself to Hitler, saying he’d be “happy to slaughter” 3 million drug addicts.

PRESIDENT RODRIGO DUTERTE: Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now, there is 3 million — what is it? Three million drug addicts, there are. I’d be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have [me]. You know, my victims, I would like to be all criminals.

AMY GOODMAN: The ICC’s arrest warrant relates to alleged extrajudicial killings that occurred between 2011 to 2019. Although the Philippines withdrew as a member of the ICC in 2019, the court retains jurisdiction over crimes committed before that date.

Duterte’s family has condemned his arrest, demanding his return to Manila. The former president’s daughter, Sara Duterte, is the current vice president of the Philippines and political rival of the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. She’s headed to The Hague to support her father. Speaking outside the airbase in Manila Tuesday, she described his arrest as “oppression and persecution.”

VICE PRESIDENT SARA DUTERTE: There is no legal basis at all to turn over or to endorse the president, former president, to ICC. So, [translated] if they’re looking for justice, there is no justice here.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, families of the victims of Duterte’s so-called drug war organized candlelight vigils, prayer meetings, gatherings to mark his arrest. Emily Soriano, the mother of a 15-year-old boy who was killed in one of Duterte’s crackdowns in 2016, called for more accountability at an emotional news conference earlier today in Manila.

EMILY SORIANO: [translated] Duterte was able to get due process, but when my child was killed, there was no due process. He sleeps in a nice bed while my child is rotting at the cemetery. It’s been eight years, almost nine years, since my son became a victim of Duterte’s “war on drugs.”

AMY GOODMAN: For more on this historic arrest of the former president of the Philippines, we’re joined right now by Walden Bello, acclaimed Filipino scholar, co-founder of Focus on the Global South. He served in the House of Representatives of the Philippines and was a key figure in the international movement to restore democracy in the Philippines in the ’70s and ’80s. His new memoir is Global Battlefields: Memoir of a Legendary Public Intellectual from the Global South. Walden Bello is joining us from Seattle, the first stop on his U.S. book tour. He also has events in San Francisco, Washington and here in New York this month.

Walden Bello, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about the significance of Duterte being arrested and flown to The Hague for crimes against humanity?

WALDEN BELLO: Well, Amy, first of all, thank you for inviting me to Democracy Now!

It is really a monumental step in the dispensation of justice. I mean, we are talking about a killer, a person who killed at least 27,000 people over his six years, plus many more, while he was mayor of Davao City down south. So, the ICC’s measure of issuing this warrant of arrest and flying Duterte to The Hague is very important not only for Filipinos and the families of those whose lives he took, but it is a warning to others, you know, that eventually justice will catch up with you. And I think there are outstanding warrants of arrest that are aimed at Netanyahu of Israel, as well as the dictator of Burma. So, it’s a very important step that we have seen in terms of Duterte’s being arrested and being sent to The Hague.

And as was mentioned by the mother of one of the victims, he is being given due process. And he will be given, hopefully, a speedy trial. And this is — due process is something that he never gave his victims. And I think it is important to say that this fellow is unrepentant. He doesn’t — you know, he doesn’t repent for all the thousands of deaths that he caused. You know, so it’s time justice caught up with him.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Walden, could you talk about the impact within the Philippines, the decision by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to allow this arrest to go forward? Meanwhile, the vice president, Duterte’s daughter, is now going to be leading his defense, the defense of her father?

WALDEN BELLO: Yes. Well, basically, there is a dynastic warfare that is going on between the Duterte family and the Marcos family. They were in alliance, you know, up to several months back, but they’ve fallen out.

And so, the fact is that when it signed the Rome Treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, the Philippine government or the Philippine state took upon itself the obligation to enforce the ICC’s mandates around arresting and trying human rights violators. And that’s a permanent duty, whoever is the powerholder or the temporary holder of Philippine power. So, the way that I would look at it is, despite the dynastic warfare that is going on, this was the fulfillment of a duty incurred by the Philippine state when it signed the Rome Treaty.

So, all the — you know, it has been a very meticulous legal process, the investigation plus the warrant of arrest. And the Marcos government had no choice but, in fact, to enforce it, because all the appropriate steps had been taken by the ICC. And the Marcos government would not have — you know, would have been not fulfilling its contractual obligations to international law, to the ICC, if it had not moved. So, the way that I look at this is that this is really something that the Philippine government had, in fact, to take because of its duties to international law.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: What about this whole issue that Duterte had withdrawn the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, in a move that his critics condemned as a way of trying to shield himself from accountability?

WALDEN BELLO: Yes, that was, in fact, the purpose, was to try to shield himself from accountability. But what the ICC is investigating is from the time the Philippines joined the Rome Treaty in 2011 up to 2019. It has jurisdiction over what Duterte did during that period. So, this is well within the rights of the ICC to, in fact, investigate and prosecute Duterte, because the Philippines during the time from 2011 to 2019, before the withdrawal, all human rights violations that were carried out during that time, the ICC had jurisdiction over.

AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, families of drug war victims held a prayer vigil in Manila following Duterte’s arrest.

CHRISTINE PASCAUL: [translated] Through our prayers and the people who helped us, we did not expect to achieve something like this, to see a president, someone like Duterte, receive a warrant of arrest.

LLORE PASCO: [translated] This is only the start of our fight. Our justice has not yet been achieved, because there are still a lot of things that will happen. But we will not stop fighting.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Walden Bello, I wanted to take this broader, and it’s something you mentioned when you first responded to his arrest. The executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Trita Parsi, wrote on social media, quote, “Perhaps Netanyahu and Gallant will be next,” referring, of course, to the current prime minister of Israel and the former defense minister. And here in New York, CUNY professor Danny Shaw similarly asked, “Why don’t they arrest Netanyahu?” If you could talk about this as a model, referring to bringing leaders to justice in an international court, and also then talk about the United States? We had Maria Ressa in a few years ago, head of Rappler, who was constantly being attacked by Duterte. And she said, “Don’t just look at what’s going on in the Philippines as what’s happening in a foreign country. We’re just a few years ahead of you,” she said, in the United States.

WALDEN BELLO: Well, yes, I mean, this is a big step forward. As I said, it was monumental in its implications. And so, this is a step that could be followed with respect to other human rights violators, like Netanyahu and Gallant and, you know, the dictator in Myanmar. And, you know, steps should be, in fact, taken and moved at this point internationally.

Like, you know, the ICC undertook this investigation and pressure on the Philippines for a long period of time. And it had the support of people in the Philippines. And I think it is really the fact that people in the Philippines wanted to see justice done, that led to the events of March 11. Without the internal pressure coming in or acting on the Philippine government, this would not, in fact, have happened.

So, it’s a combination of both internal domestic pressure plus international pressure, so, you know, coming together. And many people in the Philippines really poured a lot of effort into this over the years — journalists, lawyers. And so, it’s an accumulation of resistance, an accumulation of demands for justice. And people throughout the world, so many, supported this effort. It’s not just the ICC and its legal process, but so many, in fact, as Maria Ressa and others have, in fact, seen. So, I would say that we in the Philippines are very grateful for the international support that was shown in this effort to bring a human rights violator to The Hague.

And I think the other thing is that we’ve got to have all those countries that haven’t signed yet to sign the Rome Statute. And that includes the United States. And, you know, there have been quite a number of people who have violated human rights, engaged in widespread, systematic repression, that have to be brought to justice. And, you know, on the part of people in the United States, there has to be that pressure to get the United States to move and sign the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.

AMY GOODMAN: Walden Bello, we want to thank you so much for being with you, we look forward to seeing you when you’re here in New York. Walden is acclaimed Filipino scholar, activist, co-founder of Focus on the Global South, served in the House of Representatives of the Philippines, key figure in the international movement to restore democracy in the Philippines. His new book, Global Battlefields. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for Democracy Now!