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THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters from all over Europe who had gathered in The Hague on Friday, March 28, to mark his 80th birthday, continue to stand by him and what had been his war on drugs in the Philippines.
Killings linked to the violence-ridden campaign have landed him in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which suspects him of having committed crimes against humanity.
Duterte’s supporters believe the killings during his drug war were either justified or exaggerated, sometimes both at the same time. While living in Europe, some of them also find it difficult to see how the very different, far less violent approach by the Dutch and Europeans toward drug users and dealers could be applied in the Philippines.
Duterte’s supporters had come from the Netherlands and also from Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and many other countries, mostly in Europe.
Why they were there
Macel (who requested only her first name to be used and her face not to be shown, as with other attendees who had agreed to talk to Rappler) said she was a mother and customer service employee who had traveled from Rotterdam, having lived in the Netherlands for three years.
She was there to show her support and “to celebrate the birthday of Tatay Digs (a contraction of Tatay Digong, or Father Digong, Duterte’s nickname popular among his supporters). She added it was “a statement to the world kung paano tayo magmahal (of how we show our love).”
Macel said she had originally come from Surigao in the Philippines and had studied in Cebu City and also lived for a time in Davao City.
She had brought to the supporters’ birthday “picnic” a round green-colored cake which had the image of Duterte and his supporters’ current catch-phrase: “Bring Him Home.” Fellow Duterte supporters would come over, requesting to pose for selfies with the birthday cake.
Another attendee, Aaron, had traveled from Almere, a city that lies across a lake from Amsterdam. Describing himself as an “ordinary employee” who is “actually not a Duterte fan,” he said he came to the gathering because the Philippine government handing over Duterte to the ICC had left him deeply affected.
Aaron said he had been living in the Netherlands for 20 years. He still considered himself a Filipino while also having obtained Dutch citizenship.
On March 11, 2025, Philippine police and the Interpol detained Duterte in Manila on the strength of an ICC warrant of arrest. The former president was then taken on a flight to the Netherlands and brought to the ICC detention center in The Hague.
“Yung pangyayari na hinand-over mo ’yung Filipino citizen, kapwa mo Pilipino, sa dayuhan, parang betrayal. Feeling ko hindi tama, di mo dapat ginawa. So ’yun ang the most na nag-trigger sa akin,” Aaron said.
(The act of handing over a Filipino citizen, your fellow Filipino, to foreigners felt like a betrayal to me and something not right. It shouldn’t have happened and that was what triggered me most.)
Drug war killings justified?
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has said that 6,252 people were killed in police anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016, to May 31, 2022, during former president Duterte’s term. This figure, however, does not include those killed by unidentified perpetrators — also called victims of vigilante-style killings — whom human rights groups estimate to be between 27,000 and 30,000.
When Duterte appeared before ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I on March 14, 2025, the body found that material presented by the ICC Prosecutor showed “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is individually responsible as an indirect co-perpetrator for the crime against humanity of murder, allegedly committed in the Philippines between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019”. The ICC then set a confirmation of charges hearing for September 23, 2025. (READ: What to expect in the 6 months before Duterte’s ICC pre-trial)
When asked about the killings linked to Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, interviewed Duterte supporters referred to those as “casualties” of what supposedly was, after all, a “war” on illegal drugs.
“Siguro marami ring nadamay na dapat sana hindi, pero kumbaga, kapag may war, talagang may casualties,” Macel said. (Maybe there were many who became unintended victims but as it is said, if there’s a war, there will be casualties.)
Emerita, who said she lived in Den Haag (The Hague, as known in Dutch) described herself as a pensioner who had been living in the Netherlands for the past 43 years.
“Naniniwala ako sa legacy ni Duterte, sa mga nagawa niya.” (I believe in Duterte’s legacy, of what he’s done.)
Asked about the killings linked to Duterte’s drug war, she said: ”Nangyari din siguro, pero wala naman tayong knowledge ng lahat.” (It might have happened but we don’t know everything.)
She did feel that such killings of drug addicts were “justified.”
“Justified rin, kasi equal lang. Kasi, halimbawa, ’yung kapatid mo ni-rape ng addict, pinatay mo ’yung addict, pareho lang.” (It’s justified. For example, if a drug addict raped your sibling and you killed the addict, then you’re even.)
Why not like in the Netherlands?
The interviewees had lived for years in the Netherlands, some long enough to have acquired Dutch citizenship, and the country, as are most other countries in Europe, is known for the rule of law.
They expressed doubt if similar Dutch standards with regard to dealing with drug addicts and dealers can be applied back home in the Philippines.
“Hindi, kasi ’yung mga Pinoy, minsan sa totoo lang, kailangan ng kamay na bakal. Tingnan mo ’yung mga Pilipino, ’pag nasa bansa tayo natin, it’s harder for us to follow rules and regulations, pero pag nasa ibang bansa tayo, bakit nagagawa natin? So kailangan lang talaga ng tamang tao sa gobyerno para mapasunod ’yung mga Pilipino,” Macel said.
(Truth be told, sometimes Filipinos need to be ruled with an iron fist. Look at us Filipinos: when we are in our own country, it’s harder for us to follow rules and regulations but when we’re in another country, why are we then able to? So, the right person in government is needed to make Filipinos comply.)
Asked why the same iron-fisted response is not done in European countries such as the Netherlands, Macel said: ”Wala, pero nakasanayan naman ng mga tao dito from the start. Iba rin naman kasi ’yung kinalakihan nila…Iba rin sa Pilipinas, iba sa culture ng Pilipinas, so it’s hard to compare.”
(They don’t [use an iron fist] but people here [in the Netherlands] have grown up in a different situation…It’s different in the Philippines, the culture is different, so it’s hard to compare.)
The Netherlands does have a far less deadly attitude toward users and suspected dealers of illegal drugs. Marijuana can be legally smoked in what are known locally as “coffee shops” (which distinguish them from cafes where actual coffee is consumed).
Drug addiction in the Netherlands is considered a matter of “addiction care.” Addicts are neither routinely killed in raids by police for allegedly fighting back nor hunted down by motorcycle-riding pairs of vigilantes.
The death penalty is not arbitrarily handed down in the streets and alleys by self-appointed judge-executioners to those deemed to have failed to mend their ways.
The alleged drug pusher or suspected addict’s desperate plea for life right before the impromptu meting out of an ultimate, fatal sentence is not seen as a substitute to their right to have charges against them be proven in court.
It is not that the Netherlands does not have its own serious issues with illegal drugs. The country’s seaports, some of the busiest on the European continent, have been used by organized crime as one of the major transit areas for smuggling illegal drugs, not only into the country but also the rest of Europe.
The mayor of Amsterdam as recently as 2024 wrote that she feared the Netherlands risked becoming a “narco-state.”
Still, in the Netherlands where the interviewed Duterte supporters live, the Dutch in practice do not go beyond arrests and the prosecution of suspects. Summary executions — certainly neither in thousands nor even just a few — are not alleged against the police. These have never been encouraged by any Dutch government, either. And there have been no such calls among the Dutch themselves.
Did he really mean it?
Aaron, for his part, doesn’t think Duterte’s rhetoric of violence against drug addicts and pushers should’ve been taken literally.
“’Di naman ’pag sinabi niyang patayin, patayin. I don’t think so. Figure of speech lang naman ’yun eh. Kung gusto mo mag-impact ’yung word mo sa mga durugista o sa mga gago sa lipunan, kailangan mo ng mga ganoong klaseng words, otherwise ’di nila maintindihan.”
(It doesn’t mean that if he says “kill” he really means that. I don’t think so. It’s just a figure of speech. If you want your words to have an impact on drug addicts and other scoundrels of society, you need to use those words, or else, they’ll fail to understand you.)
Rica, who said she had traveled from Germany, where she has been living for the past 20 years, said it was safer in the Philippines when Duterte was in power.
“Sa lugar namin…sa Negros…kasi nawala talaga ang adik at pusher dun, nung time ni President (Duterte). Ngayon, bumalik na naman sila. Dati, umalis. Di na sila nagbenta sa lugar namin. Tapos ’yung mga adik doon tinago na ng mga nanay nila, inalagaan na nila.”
(In our place in Negros, the addicts and pushers there really disappeared during Presiden Duterte’s time. Now, they’ve come back. They had left before. They had stopped selling drugs in our area. The addicts were already hidden by their mothers who took care of them.)
Emerita, the pensioner in The Hague who, over four decades ago had come over from Caloocan City, decried why other suspects from other countries accused by the ICC have, unlike Duterte, not been arrested.
“Masakit ’pag sasabihin sa iyo na ang president mo ay murderer. Why don’t they arrest Netanyahu or Putin? They also have an ICC warrant of arrest. Why? Because they did not succeed so they have to find a way to succeed na magkaroon ng kaso sa atin.”
[It hurts when (former) president (Duterte) is called a murderer. Why don’t they arrest (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu or (Russian President Vladimir) Putin? They also have an ICC warrant of arrest. Why? Because they did not succeed (in arresting other leaders like Netanyahu and Putin) so they have to find a way to succeed and that is why they have a Court case against us.] – Rappler.com
