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SENATE PROBE. The Senate committee on foreign relations holds a public hearing on the involvement and roles of the International Criminal Court on the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte, on March 20, 2025.
Senate Social Media Unit
At the end of the day, whether it’s a red notice or a diffusion, its effect is the same. It's an alert that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant.
A day after debates — and seeming confusion — at a Senate panel chaired by the President’s sister, Malacañang brought in as a resource speaker on Friday, March 21, a human rights lawyer to “clarify” points about the administration’s decision to arrest and turn over former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he now faces charges over crimes against humanity related to his drug war.
Considerable time was spent before the Senate’s foreign relations committee, chaired by Senator Imee Marcos, over the mechanism through which the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) transmitted the ICC-issued warrant for Duterte’s arrest. Senator Marcos flashed on screen several times the red diffusion issued through the Interpol, framing it as lesser than a red notice.
First, definitions.
Diffusions, according to the Interpol, are a mechanism that allows member countries to “request cooperation from each other.” It says: “Diffusions are circulated directly by a member country’s National Central Bureau to all or some other member countries.”
A red diffusion — circulated for wanted persons “to arrest, detain, or restrict the movement” of these convicted or accused persons — comes directly from a member of the Interpol and not the General Secretariat. However, it is still “checked for compliance by the Notices and Diffusions Task Force.”
According to the Interpol itself, notices are issued by the General Secretariat upon the request of an Interpol member’s National Central Bureau (NCB), or upon the request of “International Criminal Tribunals and the International Criminal Court to seek persons wanted for committing crimes within their jurisdiction, notably genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”
A red notice is issued “to seek the location and arrest of persons wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence.”
“A diffusion will not be entered into in INTERPOL’s database if it is of political, military, religious or racial character in violation of Article 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution,” noted the Interpol. Article 3 states: “It is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.”
In other words
To summarize, the only real difference between a red notice or a red diffusion is who it comes from — a red notice is issued by the General Secretariat upon the request of a member country’s NCB, while a red diffusion is issued by a member country itself, either to all members of the Interpol or to specific members of the organization.
UK-based global criminal justice watchdog Fair Trials, in a pamphlet on the Interpol’s red notices and diffusions, noted: “A Diffusion is also an alert circulated through INTERPOL’s systems. Like Red Notices, Diffusions can be used to notify law enforcement authorities in one country that those of another country are seeking the arrest of a specific person. Although Diffusions are meant to be less formal than Red Notices, they can have exactly the same effect.”
A diffusion differs from a red notice in that it is “not published ‘by’ INTERPOL at the country’s request; instead, it is circulated through INTERPOL’s channels by the country itself,” according to Fair Trials.
“Interpol actually is just an international coordinating organization, it does not have the power to really have a warrant effected. Interpol coordinates so that a warrant of arrest from either a country or an international court is communicated to another country that has custody of a suspect,” explained human rights lawyer Joel Butuyan in a mix of English and Filipino, at a government-hosted briefing on March 21.
Butuyan’s Q&A was facilitated by Undersecretary Clarissa Castro, the Palace press officer.
“So, whether it’s a diffusion or red notice, it doesn’t matter, because the red notice, it’s issued shotgun to all members of Interpol. Diffusions, usually that’s country to country. But regardless of terminology, the Interpol is only a coordinating agency or organization. What’s important is that the warrant that Interpol gives us is valid, regardless of how Interpol gave it to us,” added Butuyan.
Butuyan had also said the 15-page warrant was valid and that local law enforcement’s decision to initially serve Duterte’s warrant through a digital copy of the ICC-issued warrant was also valid. The veteran human rights lawyer also emphasized that it was wrong to claim that Duterte’s arrest was warrantless.
The Duterte camp has been arguing — through media interviews and social media — that Duterte was “kidnapped” when the Philippines flew him to The Hague. Protest are being planned across the Philippines on March 28, Duterte’s 80th birthday, in hopes to “bring him home.”
Philippine officials, over a five-hour hearing led by Senator Marcos, said the arrest was above-board and that courtesies were accorded the former president.
Duterte is in the custody of the ICC in The Hague and now awaits his confirmation of charges hearing on September 23, 2025. – Rappler.com
