Why Duterte Being Charged in the Hague Is So Momentous

The former Philippines president is the second former head of state to be indicted in the International Criminal Court, and may well be the first to find guilty. That creates a hell of a precedent.

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is now formally indicted in The Hague. ICC prosecutors have filed three counts of crimes against humanity, charging him with orchestrating campaigns of murder.

The indictment, dated 4 July and unsealed this week, lays out in detail how the 80-year-old leader turned crime control into a program of extrajudicial execution. Prosecutors focused on two different periods. The first is when when Duterte allegedly created and directed death squads as mayor of Davao city. He then scaled the same methods nationwide in his “war on drugs” during his presidency from 2016 to 2022.

While the charge sheet focuses on 76 murders, prosecutors were clear that the true death toll runs into the tens of thousands.

He is only the second former head of state to actually be prosecuted in the Hague after former Côte d’Ivoire president, Laurent Gbagbo.