MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine justice chief ordered authorities Thursday to enforce an International Criminal Court warrant for the arrest of a senator wanted on an alleged crime against humanity. He warned that anyone helping the senator evade a nationwide hunt would face criminal charges.
Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa "is a fugitive from justice,” Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida said in a news conference. “He should be brought to the ICC to face
the charges.”
Dela Rosa is a former national police chief who enforced then President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown against illegal drugs that killed thousands of mostly petty suspects. The killings alarmed Western governments and human rights groups.
Duterte, who was president from 2016 to 2022, was arrested last year and flown to the The Hague, where is he is on trial at the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.
Dela Rosa had petitioned Philippines Supreme Court to block his ICC warrant, arguing that the country no longer belongs to the global court. But the court refused that petition.
Vida said in a news conference that authorities have leads on dela Rosa's whereabouts, but he refused to elaborate. He warned that anyone helping the senator evade arrest would be criminally charged.
A warrant unsealed on May 11 by the ICC charges dela Rosa with the crime against humanity of murder of “no less than 32 persons” between July 2016 and the end of April 2018, when he led the national police under Duterte and enforced the then-president’s brutal crackdowns.
“There were thousands, including minors and toddlers, who were killed,” Vida said. “It’s the government’s obligation to support and help them achieve justice."
Dela Rosa has been absent from the Senate for months due to fears of arrest. However, he made a sudden appearance on May 11 to help Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano gain a slim majority and capture the 24-member Senate’s presidency.
Dela Rosa arrived in the Senate in Cayetano’s car. National Bureau of Investigation agents tried to serve the ICC arrest warrant then, but dela Rosa darted to the Senate plenary hall and sought the help of Cayetano and allied senators in the chamber, who took him into protective custody.
Two days later, on May 13, dela Rosa fled from the Senate after volleys of gunshots were fired by the building’s security personnel. Their chief said they were warning shots after seeing armed government agents positioned in an adjacent building, police officials said.
The gunshots sparked chaos among senators, employees and journalists, including two from The Associated Press, inside the Senate.
Police said they were investigating if the chaos was deliberately sparked to allow dela Rosa to escape by fleeing in an SUV driven by another allied senator, Robinhood Padilla.
Dela Rosa’s legal predicament came as political disputes escalated between the Duterte family and Marcos. Vice President Sara Duterte, the former president’s daughter, has blamed Marcos for what she said was the “kidnapping” of her father and handover to the ICC.
The vice president, who has announced plans to seek the presidency in 2028, was impeached last week in an overwhelming vote by the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Marcos’s allies.
Her trial by the Senate on criminal allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and a public threat to have the president assassinated was expected to start in July. She has denied the allegations but has refused to answer them in detail.
