For us he is a hero' Duterte may be detained in The Hague, but he's still favourite to be mayor

A convoy of bikes and cars cruises through the streets of Davao City, decked out in the campaign colours of the former president Rodrigo Duterte and his family.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe and Guill Ramos Davao

A convoy of bikes and cars cruises through the streets of Davao City, decked out in the campaign colours of the former president Rodrigo Duterte and his family. Green balloons and red ribbons bop and flutter in the breeze. Cars beep their horns and passersby stop to raise their fists in support of the former leader.

The motorcade is as noisy and colourful as any election campaign event in the Philippines, which will vote in midterm polls today. But this procession is different. Duterte, who is running as mayor of Davao, his family's stronghold, is imprisoned thousands of miles away in The Hague.

The former president was arrested in March for the crime against humanity of murder over his deadly "war on drugs". Between 12,000 and 30,000 civilians were killed in connection with the crackdown from July 2016, when Duterte took national office, and March 2019, when the Philippines' withdrawal from the international criminal court (ICC) took effect, according to estimates cited by the ICC. Most of the victims were young men in deprived urban areas who were shot dead in the streets.

Duterte's arrest has been celebrated by international human rights groups and by victims of the merciless crackdowns, but in Davao, where Duterte was mayor for more than 20 years cumulatively before he became president, it has evoked defiance and sympathy for him.

As his supporters' motorcade snakes its way through the evening traffic, a song blasts out: "Bring back Duterte... Filipino will judge, and not a foreigner."

Ney Cabatuan, 41, who joined the procession on his motorbike, says: "He was mayor here in Davao since I was born. He's really very strict. But we thought of him as a father, and we are his daughters and sons." The former leader's tough policies were for the good of the city, he adds, and stamped out crime and unrest. "We're praying and we're begging that he [will] really come back."