The International Criminal Court (ICC) can tap the 125 state parties to the Rome Statute to enforce the arrest warrant against Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa should he flee the Philippines, an ICC-accredited lawyer asserted Monday.
Lawyer Gilbert Andres, one of the common legal representatives of the victims of the drug war Dela Rosa stands accused of enforcing, said the warrant against the embattled former PNP chief may be pursued by countries that are parties to the Rome Statute, as long as they have “domestic laws that implement ICC arrest warrants similar to the Philippines.”
“He can be arrested by the 125 state parties to the Rome Statute and other countries wherever he is,” Andres said in a radio interview.
Of the 125 state parties to the Rome Statute — the ICC’s founding treaty — 19 are in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Korea, Cambodia and Timor-Leste.
The African states account for the largest bloc, with 33 countries, followed by Latin America and Caribbean states with 28. Western European and other countries comprise 25, while Eastern Europe accounts for 20 nations.
Andres said the Dela Rosa camp’s reasoning that he could only be arrested by virtue of a local warrant is misplaced because the Philippines recognizes any warrant issued by international courts and tribunals under Republic Act (RA) 9851.
Section 17 of the law allows the Philippines “to surrender or extradite suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the appropriate international court, if any, or to another state pursuant to the applicable extradition laws and treaties,” Andres said.
He pointed out that this provision also formed the basis for the Philippines’ surrender of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC in March 2025.
“For the victims, Senator Bato should be no different from Mr. Duterte. He should also be arrested because there is an ICC warrant and because we enforce RA 9851,” Andres said.
In its petition to the SC last week, Dela Rosa’s camp cited, among others, Article 59(2) of the Rome Statute as a reason to delay his arrest while he exhausts legal remedies in the Philippines.
The provision requires the person subject of the ICC warrant to be first brought before local courts “for a determination of the propriety of the arrest in accordance with the law of that state.”
Andres countered that Dela Rosa’s camp could no longer invoke the provision, as the Philippines is no longer a state party to the Rome Statute.
To recall, the Duterte administration pulled the Philippines out of the Rome Statute in 2018 after ICC prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation into its bloody drug war. The withdrawal took effect in 2019 in accordance with the tribunal’s rules.
