A comedic, but ultimately tragic, incident happened inside the Philippine Senate building on Monday. A Senator of the Republic was caught on video running away from arresting officers, scampering up the stairs of a fire escape, stumbling, and resuming his mad dash to the plenary hall where temporary safety awaited.
His name is Ronald de la Rosa, a former national commander of the Philippine National Police and a battle-tested commando who relished sharing his exploits of killing rebels in the boondocks. He was also chief implementer of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs that killed tens of thousands of suspected drug dependents between 2011 and 2018.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has revealed it issued a warrant of arrest against the barreling de la Rosa in November 6, 2025. Since November 11 of last year, the senator had absented himself from the Senate, only appearing yesterday to cast his pivotal vote for a new leadership seen to cause problems for the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government in the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
De la Rosa spent Monday evening inside the premises after having been given protective custody by the new Senate President he helped install. It is looking like it would be a long-drawn standoff between de la Rosa and arresting officers eager to fly him to The Hague to undergo trial as an indirect co-conspirator in charges of crimes against humanity for the mass murder he allegedly participated in.
Is the Senate a sanctuary?
It depends, according to the Philippine Constitution. If the crime a senator is being accused of involves a penalty of imprisonment of less than six years, it could provide protective custody while it is in session.
The crimes de la Rosa is being accused of in the ICC carries a lifetime imprisonment penalty, however. If convicted, he would never be able to return to the Philippines.
Is the Philippine government duty-bound to arrest him?
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers president Ephraim Cortez says the Philippine government is duty-bound to arrest him and transfer his custody to the ICC.
Despite its withdrawal from the ICC in 2019, the Philippine government has agreed to the exercise of the ICC’s “residual jurisdiction.” It is therefore obliged to cooperate in any investigations involving acts committed during the effectivity of the treaty.
“The Philippine government is obliged to comply, in good faith, with such treaty obligation applying the legal principle pacta sunt servanda (Latin, agreements must be kept),” Cortez explained.
Can Marcos Jr. save him?
In a press briefing on Tuesday, de la Rosa was practically begging President Marcos Jr. not to arrest him and surrender him to the ICC.
Cortez said Marcos Jr. can do it, under the discretion provided by the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to take jurisdiction over the investigation and prosecution of cases.
But whether Marcos Jr. will do it is another matter entirely. With de la Rosa gone from the Senate, pro-impeachment senators may regain the majority and proceed with the full trial of Vice President Duterte.
The latter is a much better scenario for the Marcos Jr.
Will the courts protect him?
De la Rosa on Monday immediately appealed to the Philippine Supreme Court to restrain law enforcement agencies from arresting him and flying him to The Hague, like what Marcos Jr. did to Rodrigo Duterte in March last year.
Cortez said there is nothing in the domestic law on IHL, or in any Rules of Procedure, that gives jurisdiction to the Philippine Courts to confirm or determine the enforceability of warrants of arrest issued by the ICC.
“Without such conferment, the Philippine Courts are without jurisdiction to take cognizance of such actions,” he said.
What is the most compelling reason to arrest him?
The families of victims of de la Rosa’s war on drugs pointed out that with the ICC arrest order, he is considered a suspect-at-large, joining 30 other individuals around the world with standing warrants for the most atrocious of crimes.
“His arrest will be an anguished, somber moment for victims whose kin were killed in alleged arrest operations by police,” the group Rise Up for Rights and for Life said. Protection by the Senate is inappropriate, not when the crimes imputed to Dela Rosa are so grave, they added.
“Dela Rosa cannot only show up for work only when convenient, and he cannot hide in the Senate from the enforcement of laws that the Senate has approved. Genuine justice demands that Dela Rosa be brought before the ICC the soonest possible time to stand trial,” they explained.
De la Rosa’s colleague Risa Hontiveros echoed the appeal on Tuesday, saying the Senate’s reputation is in tatters while an international fugitive hides from justice inside its premises. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
