On March 11, 2025, Police Major General Nicolas Torre III, chief of the Philippines’ Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, stood before former President Rodrigo Duterte and read out his Miranda Rights.
“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.
This shift in the role of the security forces echoed a deeper legacy in Philippine political history. In 1986, the People Power Revolution brought down the Marcos dictatorship when elements of the military and police broke with authoritarian rule and sided with the people. Nearly four decades later, the security sector signaled a break with impunity, carrying out the arrest of a former president under the authority of international law.
There are various ways to interpret what happened on March 11. Here’s one way to see it: Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest once again positioned the Philippines as a beacon for the world, just as it had been in 1986. It served as a reminder that no strongman can hold power forever.
Yet there is another way to interpret what happened on March 11. The Philippines may be an inspiration, but it is also a warning.