Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, arrested in Manila on an Interpol warrant stemming from his deadly crackdown on drugs, touched down in Dubai Wednesday bound for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague .

The 79-year-old faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder", according to the ICC, for a crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

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President Ferdinand Marcos told a press briefing Tuesday that the plane carrying his predecessor had departed at 11:03 p.m.

"The plane is en route to The Hague in the Netherlands allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs," said Marcos.

AFP correspondents in Dubai saw the flight land around 4:00 a.m. (8 a.m. in Manila).

Video from an ABS-CBN News source showed Duterte lying down on a makeshift bed on the plane. 

A photo from the source showed that fruits were served during the flight. 

Contributed photo

Duterte was arrested at Manila's international airport Tuesday after "Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC", the presidential palace said.

His daughter, current Vice President Sara Duterte, said he was being "forcibly taken to The Hague".

"This is not justice -- this is oppression and persecution," she said in a statement.

Duterte had earlier taken to social media to say he believed the Philippine Supreme Court would step in and prevent his transfer.

"The Supreme Court will not agree to that. We do not have an extradition treaty," he said on Instagram live after his lawyers filed a petition.

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An ICC spokesman confirmed the arrest warrant Tuesday and said an initial appearance hearing would be scheduled when Duterte was in court custody.

While supporters dubbed his arrest "unlawful", reactions from those who opposed Duterte's drug war were jubilant.

'Blatant affront to our sovereignty': Sara Duterte decries father's arrest

One group working to support mothers of those killed in the crackdown called the arrest a "very welcome development".

"The mothers whose husbands and children were killed because of the drug war are very happy because they have been waiting for this for a very long time," Rubilyn Litao, coordinator for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, told AFP, while Philippine rights alliance Karapatan said his arrest was "long overdue".

War on drugs: The unheard voices

Human Rights Watch also said the arrest was a "critical step for accountability in the Philippines".

China, however, warned the ICC against "politicization" and "double standards" in the Duterte case, saying it was "closely monitoring the development of the situation".

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