Philippines: Duterte to run as mayor despite inquiry into his drugs crackdown

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, whose anti-drugs crackdown is being investigated by the international criminal court as a possible crime against humanity, has registered to run for mayor of his home city.

Duterte, 79, filed his papers with the Election Commission in Davao City, where he had served as mayor for about two decades before winning the presidency in 2016. His son, incumbent Davao city mayor, Sebastian Duterte, would run as his vice-mayor in next year’s midterm elections, officials said.

More than 6,000 people, mostly poor drug suspects, were killed under a massive police-enforced crackdown against illegal drugs that Duterte oversaw when he was president, according to government pronouncements. But human rights groups say the death toll is considerably higher and should include many unsolved killings by gunmen on motorcycles, who may have been deployed by police.Duterte has denied condoning extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, although he has openly threatened suspects with death and has ordered police to shoot suspects who dangerously resist arrest.

Despite his administration’s massive crackdown against illegal drugs, Duterte acknowledged they remained a major problem. During his presidential campaign, he vowed to eradicate the drug problem in three to six months but said after winning the presidency that he had underestimated the enormity of the problem.

He withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, in a move critics said was an attempt to evade accountability. In a previous statement, the ICC said the withdrawal took effect in March 2019, and that it retained jurisdiction for crimes committed until this point.

When Duterte’s turbulent presidential term ended in 2022, he said he would retire from politics, but he has walked back on his public pronouncements many times.

His daughter, the vice-president, Sara Duterte, said in June that her father and two brothers were planning to run for seats in the 24-member senate. But the former president told reporters in Davao city on Saturday that his frail health could not withstand the rigours of a campaign for any national position.

Duterte has remained popular after stepping down from the presidency, but human rights groups and his political opponents would be likely to campaign hard to block his return to politics. He and his family have also been at odds with his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whom he has publicly reviled as a weak leader and a drug addict. Marcos has laughed off Duterte’s allegations.

Sara Duterte resigned in July from her posts of education secretary and head of an anti-insurgency body under the Marcos administration. It was the latest sign her alliance with Marcos has floundered over key differences, including the Marcos administration’s high-profile pushback against China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea.

Marcos has strengthened his country’s treaty alliance with the US as his country’s territorial disputes with China flared alarmingly since last year.

During his presidency, Duterte nurtured cozy ties with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, while lambasting the security policies of the US and other western governments.