NOT WITH STANDING a confirmed arrest warrant issued by Netherlands-based International Criminal Court, former Philippine National Police chief Senator Roland “Bato” dela Rosa took refuge in the Senate building– where he was absent from official duties since November until last Monday– to pitch his vote for a leadership change of the upper chamber to ensure that the Senate cannot begin trial on the impeachment articles submitted to it (also Monday) by the lower chamber.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation along with former Senator Antonio Trillanes went to the Senate to serve an arrest warrant on dela Rosa that led to some physical commotion that prompted the Senate to cite in contempt and detain those that served the warrant.
Dela Rosa’s lawyers went to the Supreme Court for a temporary restraining order against the arrest warrant while the Senate also issued a resolution meant to require that Dela Rosa can only be arrested by a local court order.
Dela Rosa and fellow senators stayed overnight in the locked down Senate building to ensure that he won’t be touched while inside the Senate hall– which some former senators and experts said should not be made to look like a safe haven for fugitives of any law (local or international).
As BBC narrated: “Dela Rosa was pictured fleeing into the Senate on Monday as officers chased after him. He narrowly escaped and was placed under protective custody.”
Police later said they would not arrest him while he was in custody of the Senate.
Dela Rosa is accused of the killing of at least 32 people between 2016 and 2018, as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign, in which thousands of alleged drug dealers were shot and killed.
Former president Duterte has been in ICC custody in The Hague since his arrest in March 2025.
Security camera footage presented to lawmakers on Monday showed NBI agents chasing Dela Rosa up flights of stairs and a corridor in the Senate building after he arrived.
An ensuing standoff ended hours later with NBI chief, Atty. Melvin Matibag, telling reporters that they would not arrest Dela Rosa while he was in the custody of the Senate. Dela Rosa has said that he would remain within the Senate’s premises and “do everything” to avoid being taken to the Hague.
His lawyers say they have asked the Supreme Court to block his arrest in the absence of a valid Philippine judicial warrant.
Bato Turns To Supporters
This morning, Dela Rosa urged his supporters, who have gathered outside the Senate building, to “keep vigil in front of the Senate until the Supreme Court decides.”
He also called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is feuding with the Duterte political dynasty, to file a local case against him if he believed him to be guilty.
“If I have an obligation, I will answer it in the local court, not a foreign one,” he told reporters.
The chaos that has gripped the Senate comes as its 24 members, dominated by Duterte’s allies, elected Alan Peter Cayetano, a known Duterte supporter, as the new president– replacing Senate President Tito Sotto.
Cayetano told the media that the Senate would only act on arrest warrants from a Philippine court.
But it is Marcos’s allies who control the lower House of Representatives, which earlier in the day voted to impeach Vice President Sara, Duterte’s daughter for the second time, a first in Philippine political history.
The feud between the Duterte and Marcos dynasties have become increasingly bitter, after the collapse of the alliance which helped them to win the 2022 election.
Sara Duterte is the front-runner to succeed Marcos in 2028 and she accuses Marcos of using the ICC arrest warrants and her impeachment as political weapons to weaken her campaign.
The elder Duterte has refused to recognise the ICC proceedings, arguing that during his presidency in 2019 the Philippines had pulled out of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding agreement.
But last month, judges in the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber rejected that argument on the grounds that the alleged crimes had happened between 2011 and 2019 – while the Philippines was still a member of the ICC – paving the way for Duterte to stand trial, BBC said.