Gunshots rang out in the Philippine Senate on Wednesday as Senator Ronald Marapon “Bato” dela Rosa sought to escape an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity during his time as former President Rodrigo Duterte’s chief drug war enforcer.
Dela Rosa, 64, was the police chief in Duterte’s hometown of Davao City when Duterte was the mayor in the 1990s. When Duterte was elected president of the Philippines in 2016, he tapped friend and political ally Dela Rosa to become chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“He is leaving everything up to me,” Dela Rosa boasted of Duterte’s trust in him. One of his first actions as PNP chief was issuing the directive that formally launched the anti-drug crackdown, which was known as Project Double Barrel.
“Bato” Dela Rosa, whose nickname is the Tagalog word for “rock,” held that post until 2018 and became the chief enforcer for Duterte’s notoriously brutal war on drugs. Human rights groups accused Duterte’s government of killing over 12,000 people during the bloody campaign, with over 2,500 deaths directly attributed to the PNP. Some of these killings were allegedly justified with false charges and falsified evidence.
In November 2025, the ICC issued a sealed arrest warrant for Dela Rosa for crimes against humanity, including at least 32 killings. The warrant was not unsealed until May 2026, by which time Dela Rosa was into his second term as a Philippine senator.
Duterte himself was charged with the same offenses and arrested by the ICC in March 2025. The boisterous Duterte went along for the ride willingly, welcoming the opportunity to clear his name.
“What was my sin? I did everything in my time so Filipinos can have a little peace and tranquility. If this is my fate in life, it’s OK, I’ll accept it. I can’t do anything if I get arrested and jailed,” he declared. He has been detained at the ICC facility in the Netherlands ever since, winning re-election as mayor of Davao City in a landslide from his jail cell in May 2025.
Dela Rosa was elected to the Senate in 2019 and soon became embroiled in its tumultuous politics, including the effort to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president.
Sara Duterte has been accused of misusing public funds and publicly threatening violence against current president Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and his family. In November 2024, Duterte publicly accused Marcos, Jr. of plotting to assassinate her and said she had made arrangements for the murder of Marcos, Jr., first lady Liza Araneta, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez in the event of her death.
Dela Rosa, who has been known to disappear from the Senate for months at a time without explanation, suddenly reappeared just in time to support another Duterte ally, Alan Peter Cayetano, as president of the Senate. The shakeup was seen as greatly reducing the odds of Sara Duterte’s removal from office, although she has been impeached twice by the lower House.
Dela Rosa was widely believed to have been hiding from the ICC arrest warrant. When he showed up at the Senate again on Monday, he found agents from the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which handles high-profile and political crimes, waiting to take him into custody and hand him over to the ICC.
To the surprise of everyone involved in the awkward scene, Dela Rosa ran past the Bureau agents – tripping on the stairs and nearly faceplanting at one point – and threw himself into the Senate chamber, where the NBI agents did not have the authority to follow him. He called on his political allies, and the general public, to protect him from the ICC warrant and proceeded to camp out in his Senate office, unleashing the most turgid political crisis in recent memory.
Dela Rosa was soon prowling the Senate halls in shorts and slippers, singing little songs on camera to urge fellow graduates of the Philippine Military Academy to rally to his defense against the ICC:
Various arms of the Philippine government began arguing with each other over who, if anyone, had the authority to march into the Senate and arrest Dela Rosa, and how much force they might have to use in the process.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Philippine Supreme Court declined to issue a temporary restraining order against Dela Rosa’s arrest. The court punted the issue to President Marcos, giving him 72 hours to respond to Dela Rosa’s petition to block the ICC warrant.
Dela Rosa used a break in Senate proceedings on Wednesday to go on Facebook and declare the authorities were preparing to arrest him.
“I am here calling for your help: let us not have another Filipino brought to The Hague like President Duterte,” he said.
On Wednesday evening, something happened in the Senate, but the details remain unclear. Police reportedly made the decision to force their way into the chambers and arrest Dela Rosa, supported by troops from the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC). The squad wore body armor and carried long guns.
Someone fired at least 15 shots during the ensuing brawl, unleashing chaos in the Senate as politicians and reporters scrambled for cover. It was not clear who fired the shots, or who they were shooting at, but there were no reported injuries from the gunfire.
Senate Secretary Mark Llandro Mendoza claimed the shots were fired by NBI agents who attempted to force their way into the Senate and discharged their firearms after they were forced to retreat, but the NBI denied any of its agents were in the building at the time.
Police spokesman Randulf Tuano said in a radio interview on Thursday that an individual had been arrested in connection with the shooting and “the person has provided names, but these still need confirmation.”
President Marcos said on Wednesday night that he did not give orders to arrest Dela Rosa and all of the armed police and troops seen at the Senate were there for its protection, not to take the rogue senator into custody.
“The government did not do this. No soldier, military, or NBI agent entered the Senate. We do not know who tried to enter,” he said in an address to the nation on the crisis.
“We will find out who caused this chaos. Was this really just an encounter? Is this part of attempts to destabilize the government or trigger chaos? We need to know the truth,” he said.
A press spokesperson for Marcos’ office claimed the gunfire in the Senate came from none other than Mao Aplasca, the sergeant-at-arms, who spotted what he believed to be an NBI agent and fired warning shots to make him withdraw. This did little to explain why fifteen shots were fired.
As for Dela Rosa, he took advantage of the chaos to flee from the Senate building in the company of another senator, Robin Padilla. The NIB announced it was launching a nationwide manhunt for him.
On Thursday, the acting sergeant-at-arms for the PNP, Mao Aplasca, said Dela Rosa had contacted his agency and asked to be placed under PNP custody. The PNP clarified that it would not put Dela Rosa under arrest, as it lacked the authority to do so, and the ICC has yet to formally present it with a copy of its arrest warrant.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.