The chief enforcer of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s deadly \u201cwar on drugs\u201d campaign has taken refuge in the country\u2019s parliament after the International Criminal Court (ICC) unsealed a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a> yesterday, The Hague-based court confirmed that it had issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronald \u201cBato\u201d dela Rosa on November 6, which has since been held under seal.<\/p>\n The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I \u201cfound reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Dela Rosa is allegedly criminally responsible as an indirect co-perpetrator\u2026 for the crime against humanity of murder,\u201d the court said.<\/p>\n Just hours before the ICC confirmed the warrant, Dela Rosa fled into the Senate building, with officers from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in hot pursuit<\/a>, and locked himself in his office. Former Senator Antonio Trillanes, who has led multiple investigations into Duterte\u2019s anti-drug campaign, later told reporters<\/a> that the NBI personnel were attempting to enforce an ICC warrant.<\/p>\n Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, an ally of Duterte who was appointed to the position just hours before the stand-off over Dela Rosa\u2019s arrest, later told the press that the 64-year-old had been placed under the Senate\u2019s protection, Inquirer.net reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will allow an arrest under the condition that it is a Philippine court,\u201d Cayetano said.<\/p>\n According to Reuters, the former national police chief attended<\/a> a Senate session yesterday for the first time since disappearing from public view in November, around the same time that the ICC confirmed it first issued the warrant for his arrest.<\/p>\n The warrant relates to Dela Rosa\u2019s role in the anti-drug campaign,\u00a0which prosecutors \u200csay killed tens of thousands of suspected drug dealers during Duterte\u2019s six years in office (2016-2022). Many were reportedly little more than poor drug users, or innocents caught in the crossfire. Estimates of the number killed during the anti-narcotics campaign range from an official estimate of around 6,000<\/a> to as many as 30,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n Duterte was arrested in March 2025 and extradited to the ICC, where he faces trial after a pre-trial panel last month ruled<\/a> that there were \u201csubstantial grounds\u201d to believe that the 81-year-old was guilty of crimes against humanity linked to his \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n As chief of the Philippine National Police from July 2016 to April 2018, Dela Rosa played a central role in the initial phase of the anti-drug campaign. According to the ICC statement, he is \u201calleged to have been involved in a common plan that lasted from approximately 1 November 2011 until 16 March 2019 to kill alleged criminals in the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n For years prior, he worked in a number of law enforcement roles in Davao City, where Duterte was mayor for more than two decades, and helped enforce Duterte\u2019s harsh anti-crime measures.<\/p>\n In February 2018, the ICC prosecutor announced that his office was opening a preliminary investigation into \u201cdrug war\u201d killings, both during Duterte\u2019s presidential term and during his tenure as mayor of Davao City. The court then authorized a full investigation<\/a> in September 2021.<\/p>\n Initially, it was hard to see Duterte (or anyone else) ever ending up in the dock at the ICC. But things turned against Duterte after his relationship with his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., deteriorated during the course of 2024. After coming to office in 2022, Marcos initially called on the ICC to drop the case and asserted that it had no jurisdiction over the Philippines, but as his relationship with Duterte soured, he reconsidered his opposition to the court. When the ICC issued an arrest warrant in February 2025, he authorized police to execute it.<\/p>\n Since Duterte\u2019s arrest, it has been widely expected that Dela Rosa would be next in the ICC\u2019s sights. He has previously denied being involved in illegal killings, but disappeared from public view in November, presumably out of fear of arrest on an ICC warrant.<\/p>\n While the Philippine police say that they will not pursue<\/a> Dela Rosa\u2019s arrest for now, his flight into his Senate chambers could potentially set up a protracted Julian Assange-style stand-off.<\/p>\n