“You have the right to remain silent,” Torre said, after he informed Duterte that the International Criminal Court had issued a warrant of arrest for crimes against humanity. “You have the right to counsel of your choice. Anything you say may be used for and against you in a court of law,” he continued.
The symbolism was profound. It was the Philippine National Police – the very institution that had once been the frontline enforcer of Duterte’s bloody drug war – now carrying out the arrest of the man who had empowered its most brutal excesses. Under Duterte’s presidency, police forces had been linked to widespread extrajudicial killings, often targeting the country’s urban poor.
