Ombudsman Boying Remulla maintained on Saturday that he had seen firsthand the alleged warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Senator Bato de la Rosa for his purported role in crimes against humanity linked to the notorious bloody war on drugs waged by the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Remulla recounted in an interview that a liaison from the ICC showed him the full document containing the ICC arrest warrant against De la Rosa, but did not disclose specific details such as the exact date.
He said this corroborated a similar document shown to him by his colleagues at the Department of Justice, where he previously served as secretary before being appointed Ombudsman in October.
“Saturday morning, about a month ago, my colleagues from the DOJ came to my house. We talked about it and I asked, ‘Where is the warrant?’ Then they showed me a page,” he said in Filipino.
Recall that Remulla announced the alleged warrant on his radio program last 8 November, which also fell on a Saturday.
Despite having limited information, Remulla said he felt the need to make it public, claiming that it was more than a mere “scoop” and was instead an “accountability issue” that the public deserved to know immediately.
“Then the next day, I spoke to someone again. Apparently, a liaison with the ICC. He showed me the entire document,” Remulla added.
Neither Malacañang nor the DOJ has confirmed the validity of the warrant, but Remulla has stood by his position that the information came from within the DOJ.
De la Rosa was Duterte’s first appointed police chief, serving from 2016 to mid-2018. After his resignation, he was succeeded by retired police general Oscar Albayalde, who continued to oversee the alleged extrajudicial killings.
ICC documents indicate that Duterte has nine co-perpetrators, though their names remain undisclosed because the records are heavily redacted.
However, certain individuals, including De la Rosa, have been publicly identified because of their key roles in the brutal anti-drug campaign that resulted in thousands of deaths, mostly from poor communities, drawing global condemnation.
It has long been speculated that De la Rosa and Albayalde could be next in line to face trial at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, where Duterte is currently detained.
Albayalde earlier vowed that he would not resist arrest if the government enforced the ICC warrant through Interpol, while De la Rosa—who had assertively stated that he was “ready” for a possible ICC warrant—has not been seen since Remulla announced the development.
De la Rosa has been notably absent from the Senate since Congress resumed session after a month-long break on 11 November.
Senate President Tito Sotto confirmed that the senator has not been reporting for work, missing hearings and budget deliberations for agencies he was supposed to sponsor.
De la Rosa attempted to preempt the ICC warrant by asking the Supreme Court for a temporary restraining order to prevent him from being “subjected to illegal arrest or surrender to a foreign court.” He also petitioned the Court to compel Remulla to produce a copy of the warrant, which the high court denied.