House leaders: Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest proves 'no leader can escape justice forever'

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

MANILA, Philippines — House leaders welcomed the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte on crimes against humanity charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, March 11. 

Lawmakers hailed it as a precedent affirming that no one is above the law and a step forward in the pursuit of justice over Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr (Pampanga, 3rd District) described the former president’s arrest as a “decisive step towards justice.” 

“This proves that the international community will not tolerate crimes against humanity, and those responsible for extrajudicial killings must answer for their actions,” he said in a statement. 

Gonzales noted that the ICC’s arrest warrant, served by Prosecutor General Anthony Fadullon on Tuesday morning, underscores that “no leader can escape justice forever.”

“[T]he Philippine government should respect international accountability mechanisms instead of protecting those accused of grave human rights violations,” he said.

Even as Duterte faces charges for alleged crimes during his administration, House Deputy Majority Leader Paolo Ortega V (La Union, 1st District) said that his accountability remains, stating that “justice has no expiration date.”

“The thousands of lives lost in the bloody war on drugs deserve to be remembered, and the arrest of the former President is a testament that impunity will never be permanent,” he added.

Ortega also urged Duterte to stop “playing the victim” and instead face the due process available to him. “The families of the victims deserve justice, and this is just the beginning,” he said.

Upholding justice, restoring public trust

House Quad Committee Chair Robert Ace Barbers (Surigao del Norte, 2nd District), who led the probe into Duterte’s drug war and its extrajudicial killings, added that the development “would restore public trust in the justice system.”  

“Ito ay patunay na sa ating bansa … na walang sinuman ang nasa ibabaw ng batas (This is proof that in our country, no one is above the law),” he said in a statement. 

He also pointed out how Duterte’s drug war “opened the doors” to a culture of impunity, where police officers abandoned their mandate to “serve and protect” by killing drug suspects and depriving them of due process.

“Ang pag-aresto na ito ay hindi lamang tungkol sa isang tao,” Barbers said. “Ito ay tungkol sa pagbabalik ng tiwala ng publiko sa ating sistema ng hustisya at sa pagtiyak na ang mga pang-aabuso, sa pangkasalukuyan man o nuong sa nakaraan ay hindi na mauulit.”

(This arrest is not just about one person. It is about restoring public trust in our justice system and ensuring that abuses, whether past or present, will not happen again.)

RELATED: Quad Comm: File criminal raps vs Rodrigo Duterte, allies over incentivized drug war and EJKs

For Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers Party-list), Duterte’s arrest should also “serve as a reminder that those responsible for human rights abuses must face the consequences of their actions."

Duterte was arrested by police officials on Tuesday and is currently held at Villamor Airbase after returning to Manila from a weekend trip to Hong Kong.

The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) in Manila received the ICC arrest warrant notification early Tuesday morning, with Prosecutor General Anthony Fadullon serving the warrant.

His war on drugs has resulted in an estimated 12,000 to 30,000 killings, according to human rights groups and the ICC. Official government data, however, places the number of extrajudicial killings at around 6,000.