Some Filipinos said on Wednesday, March 12, that they were "thankful" for the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte, while others disputed the move to send him to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague as part of its probe into his "war on drugs" that defined his presidency.

"His other accomplices should be included as well, so all of them can pay the price,” said 78-year-old retired pharmacy worker Ed Salangasang, who was thankful for Duterte's arrest as he felt it was what "almost all Filipinos wanted for all the extrajudicial killings he did".

Duterte's arrest early on Tuesday (March 11) marked the biggest step yet in the ICC's probe into alleged crimes against humanity during an anti-drugs crackdown that killed thousands and drew condemnation around the world.

Former airline employee Jeoffrey Onse, 72, said Duterte "shouldn’t have been brought away like that" and that "he should have stayed in the country".

Durterte's detention follows years of him rebuking and taunting the ICC in profanity-laden speeches since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court's founding treaty in 2019 as it started looking into allegations of systematic murders of drug dealers on his watch.

The ICC, a court of last resort, says it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes that took place while a country was a member.

(Production: Jay Ereno, Peter Blaza, Feline Lim)