THE Senate resembled a fortress on Tuesday after the botched attempt by the National Bureau of Investigation to serve an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on Senator Ronald dela Rosa. Armed security personnel stood watch inside the building while rows of policemen formed a protective cordon outside the compound.
PHOTOGRAPHS by Aram Lascano and John Carlo Magallon for DAILY TRIBUNE
The International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed it had issued an arrest warrant against Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa for alleged crimes against humanity tied to the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign.
In a video message, an ICC representative said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” Dela Rosa was criminally responsible for killings linked to the drug war operations.
Following the unsealing of the warrant, the ICC prosecutor’s office confirmed the charges against the senator.
It said the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I believed Dela Rosa acted jointly with former President Rodrigo Duterte and other alleged co-perpetrators in ordering the killings carried out from 3 July 2016 to the end of April 2018.
The court said the allegations involved at least 32 killings and noted the incidents cited in the warrant represented only a sample of what the prosecutors believe could be a broader pattern of violence connected to the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign.
The warrant, initially issued in secret on 6 November 2025, was unsealed after what the ICC described as changes in circumstances.
Exhaust all means
Dela Rosa, a former Philippine National Police chief and chief implementer of Duterte’s “Project Double Barrel,” said he would exhaust all legal remedies to avoid being brought to The Hague, Netherlands where Duterte is detained.
“We will exhaust all available legal means. We need to do everything so they cannot bring us to The Hague,” Dela Rosa said in a radio interview Tuesday.
The senator remained inside the Senate building after appearing at Monday’s plenary session, where he joined the senators who voted to oust Senate President Vicente Sotto III and install Senator Alan Peter Cayetano.
Protective custody
The Senate was briefly placed on lockdown Monday after agents of the National Bureau of Investigation attempted to serve the ICC warrant on Dela Rosa on the premises.
Cayetano later said Dela Rosa would not be arrested inside the Senate chamber and placed the senator under Senate “protective custody,” a move questioned by legal experts.
Former Senate President Franklin Drilon said there was no legal basis for “protective custody” in the Senate, pointing out that lawmakers were immune from arrest only for offenses punishable by six years or less imprisonment while Congress is in session.
Lawyer Domingo Cayosa said the privilege did not apply to crimes against humanity cases, which carry penalties beyond six years under Republic Act 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law.
Former law dean Mel Sta. Maria said the Senate “must not coddle and protect a fugitive,” adding that there is no law making the Senate premises a sanctuary from arrest.
“The Senate building is owned by the government and belongs to the people,” Sta. Maria said.
‘Pathetic’
Rep. Leila de Lima, then a senator who was arrested in the Senate in 2017 on drug charges that were later dismissed by the courts, described Dela Rosa’s actions as “pathetic.”
“Where is your bravado now?” she said in Filipino, referring to Dela Rosa’s earlier remarks challenging former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to personally arrest him.
Trillanes was at the Senate but he denied he was serving the warrant, saying it was an NBI operation and that he merely showed the document to the media. He was also there, he said, because Dela Rosa had once dared him to be present when he was to be arrested.
“It was just incidental that I showed the warrant because it was in the NBI’s possession,” he added.
In Malacañang, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro defended the government’s actions and urged supporters of the past administration to obey the law.
She cited RA 9851 that allows Philippine authorities to cooperate with international tribunals investigating crimes against humanity.
Assault on sovereignty
For Duterte’s former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, the ICC warrant was part of the continuing “assault on the sovereignty of the country.”
Vice President Sara Duterte, speaking from The Hague, questioned the attempts to serve the ICC warrant on Dela Rosa without first presenting it before a Philippine court.
“That is wrong,” she said.
