Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant over alleged crimes against humanity, nearly nine years after he launched his nationwide war on drugs that has left more than 6,000 people dead in police operations alone.
Malacañang said that the Manila office of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, received a copy of the warrant against Duterte. This is tied to the drug war killings that claimed up to 30,000 lives, including victims of vigilante-style executions across the Philippines.
But what exactly is the Interpol?
What is the Interpol?
The International Criminal Police Organization or the Interpol is an intergovernmental organization established in 1923 to help state agents to “work together to make the world a safer place.”
Its first iteration was established in 1923, and currently has 196 member countries whose national law enforcement agencies should ideally work together to fight crime across borders or those that go beyond their respective jurisdictions. According to the Interpol’s website, this is done by helping each country “share and access data” on crimes and criminals, which can be found also in the 19 police databases managed by the Interpol general secretariat. These databases contain information — from fingerprints, to even stolen passports — that can be accessed by member-countries.
The Interpol is funded by contributions from member-countries as well as voluntary funding from partnerships. In 2023, the Interpol raised 176 million euros to fund its activities.
What are the notices released by Interpol?
The Interpol can publish several Notices for a variety of reasons and purposes. But in general, these Notices act as international alerts or a signal for cooperation among police units across member-countries.
Notices are often issued upon the request of a country. They can also be requested by international bodies such as the International Criminal Court or even the United Nations, especially for those sanctioned by the Security Council.
Majority of Notices issued by the Interpol “are restricted to law enforcement use only.” This means that information related to these notices are not published on their website or disseminated to the public, and are only known among state agents. Notices requested by the UN, however, are all publicly available.
Who are the people with Interpol Red Notices?
The Interpol issues Red Notices for individuals who are up for prosecution or to serve a sentence in the requesting country or institution subject to their criminal proceedings.
It is important to note that an individual who is the subject of a notice is not wanted by the Interpol. Rather, he or she is wanted by a specific country or institution. Therefore, a Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant. According to its website, the Interpol “cannot compel the law enforcement authorities in any country to arrest someone who is the subject of a Red Notice.”
The Interpol’s Notices and Diffusions Task Force reviews these requests before a notice is issued. The team of lawyers, police officers, and other specialists uses information available at the time, as well as Interpol’s own rules, to decide on the next move.
The Interpol can issue Red Notices “only if the offense concerned is a serious ordinary-law crime.” These do not include those relating to private matters, administrative in nature, or offenses “that raise controversial issues in some countries relating to behavioral or cultural norms.”
According to the Interpol, parts of a Red Notice are made public at the request of the issuing member country, especially when public assistance is needed to find the individual or if they pose a risk to public safety. The Notice may, however, not be publicly released — if the requesting party is the ICC — when warrants remain sealed or kept secret.
In the case of Duterte, the Notice had yet to be posted on the Interpol’s public website as of early Tuesday afternoon, March 11. The Philippine government, however, had received from the Interpol an official copy of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Duterte early morning. This became the basis of the government’s arrest of the former president.
There are at least 6,612 public Red Notices currently in circulation, according to the Interpol’s database. Six have been issued by the Interpol on behalf of the ICC so far:
- Former presidential representative for human rights of the de facto South Ossetian administration David Sanakoev, former internal affairs minister Mikhail Mindzaev (former minister of internal affairs), and Tshkinvali detention head Guchmazov Gamlet were issued arrest warrants by the ICC in June 2022 for alleged war crimes committed during the Russia-Georgia conflict in 2008. These incidents included unlawful confinement, torture, inhumane treatment, and hostage-taking.
- Mahamat Nouradine Adam — former minister of security, emigration, immigration, and public order in the Central African Republic — is facing an arrest warrant in relation to crimes against humanity allegedly committed at detention centers in Bangui between April and November 2013. His warrant was issued in January 2019 but unsealed in July 2022.
- Abdallah Banda, former commander-in-chief of the Justice and Equality Movement Collective-Leadership, faces charges of three war crimes linked to a 2007 attack in Darfur, Sudan. His summons to appear was issued in 2009, unsealed in 2010, and an arrest warrant followed in September 2014.
- There is also a red notice and warrant against Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, the honorary chairman of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation and acting as Libya’s de facto prime minister at the time. The second son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi faces two counts of crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 2011. His arrest warrant was issued on June 27, 2011.
Notably absent on the list are the high-profile fugitives Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There is no direct reason offered by the Interpol nor the ICC for this, but the Interpol usually does not issue Notices for incumbent world leaders. Another possible reason also is that the ICC may not have requested the Interpol to issue one at all.
What is the Philippines’ relationship with Interpol? Why did it implement the warrant?
The Philippines has been a member of the Interpol since June 1952, or almost 73 years already. It is listed as one of the founding members of the Interpol. In November 2024, reaffirming the country’s adherence, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that “we have obligations to Interpol and we have to live up to those obligations.”
An Interpol Notice does not automatically mean that an arrest will happen, even if a country is a member-state. Like the ICC, the Interpol depends on the willingness of its network to act. On its website, the organization underscores its role as a platform for cooperation, stating that it helps police forces work directly with their counterparts. Ultimately, however, enforcement remains in the hands of individual countries.
Member-countries benefit from this cooperation, as Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Jean Fajardo explained on Monday, March 10. She said that there are instances when the Philippines sought assistance to arrest, through Interpol mechanisms, fugitives wanted in the Philippines.
“Since the PNP is a member of the [Interpol], then we are duty bound to accord the same courtesy accorded to us by the other foreign states,” she said. “If there will be request for police assistance in implementing [warrants related to Duterte], then the PNP is obligated to honor that obligation under the principle of reciprocity,”
Other statements of Marcos government officials also mattered here, since they can indicated the firmness of state agents in carrying out themselves the warrant if coursed through the Interpol.
In August 2024, Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla said that the Department of Justice will not hinder the Interpol from arresting individuals in the Philippines with outstanding warrants from the ICC. He said that his agency is “not in the business of blocking any movement” as this “goes against our international commitments.”
“That is the future issue at hand now. If they issue a warrant of arrest, it’s the Interpol’s job to serve it. And we have an obligation to the Interpol,” he said.
Just last January 2025, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin also echoed the same stand. He explicitly stated that the Philippines would cooperate if the ICC requests the Interpol’s assistance in enforcing an arrest warrant related to Duterte’s drug war.
“If the ICC makes a move, and courses the move through the Interpol, and the Interpol makes the request to us for the arrest or delivery of the custody of a person subject to ICC jurisdiction, we will respond favorably or positively to the Interpol request,” Bersamin said. This line was reiterated by Malacañang on Sunday, March 9, when reports about the possible issuance of an ICC warrant first circulated.
Duterte needs to be at the ICC for proceedings to begin. – Rappler.com