The Philippines’ solicitor basic has urged the Supreme Court docket to reject a authorized try by fugitive Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa looking for to dam his arrest and extradition to the Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) in The Hague.
On Might 11, the ICC unsealed a warrant dated November 6 for Dela Rosa’s arrest, charging him with crimes towards humanity linked to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “warfare on medicine.” Dela Rosa subsequently fled into his workplace within the Senate, earlier than slipping out of the constructing earlier than daybreak on Thursday. His whereabouts are at present unknown.
The senator additionally filed three petitions to the Supreme Court docket, requesting that it cease authorities from arresting him and surrendering him to the ICC.
In a 74-page remark filed on Saturday and made public yesterday, the Workplace of the Solicitor Common (OSG) described Dela Rosa as a “fugitive” and argued that his bid lacks any authorized foundation.
The OSG said that the Philippines “won’t ever grow to be a sanctuary for impunity for the slim and universally condemned class of atrocities often known as crimes towards humanity,” and added that the nation could implement the ICC warrant underneath a home legislation, Republic Act 9851, which permits authorities to give up suspects accused of grave worldwide crimes to worldwide courts for prosecution.
It mentioned that Dela Rosa was not entitled to aid as a result of his “actions present that he comes to courtroom with unclean palms.”
“His flight, coupled with the truth that he had beforehand gone into hiding, will not be merely incidental however is a deliberate act to keep away from accountability,” the OSG added. “His conduct locations him squarely throughout the definition of a fugitive from justice.”
Dela Rosa is needed by the ICC for his distinguished position within the anti-drug marketing campaign, which raged all through Duterte’s six years in workplace (2016-2022). Estimates of the quantity killed throughout the marketing campaign vary from an official estimate of round 6,000 to as many as 30,000.
If arrested, he would be a part of his former boss, Duterte, who was arrested in March 2025 and extradited to the ICC for his position within the marketing campaign. The 81-year-old former president is about to face trial after a pretrial panel final month dominated that there have been “substantial grounds” to consider that he was responsible of crimes towards humanity. It has lengthy been anticipated that Dela Rosa can be subsequent in line, and previous to final week’s dramatic occasions, he had not appeared in public since November.
The standoff over Dela Rosa is the newest instalment within the serial political feud between Duterte’s household and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his former ally, which has raged because the two political clans fell out throughout the course of 2024.
Certainly, Dela Rosa resurfaced on Might 11 as a way to forged his vote for a “management coup” within the Senate, which deposed the chamber’s president and changed him with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, an ally of the Dutertes.
This happened on the identical day as Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, was impeached for the second time by a Home of Representatives dominated by allies of the Marcoses. She is accused of a protracted listing of alleged transgressions, together with corruption, misuse of presidency funds, and plotting to kill Marcos, his spouse, and his cousin, then speaker of the Home of Representatives, throughout a livestream in November 2024.
It’s broadly assumed that the Senate “coup” was supposed to dam or frustrate Duterte’s upcoming impeachment trial, which is about to happen quickly within the Senate. If impeached by a two-thirds vote, Duterte can be faraway from workplace and banned from politics for all times, though it’s probably that the Dutertes have sufficient allies within the higher home to forestall a conviction.
The impeachment battle is now more likely to happen in parallel with the federal government’s try to implement the ICC’s arrest warrant towards Dela Rosa, which Justice Minister Fredderick Vida mentioned on Friday the nation would “undoubtedly” honor. The latter would virtually actually not have occurred had been it not for the deterioration within the relationship between the Marcoses and Dutertes, who allied to nice impact for the 2022 presidential election.
After coming to workplace, Marcos initially known as on the ICC to drop the case towards Duterte and asserted that it had no jurisdiction over the Philippines, however as his relationship with Duterte soured, he reconsidered his opposition to the case. When the ICC issued an arrest warrant towards Duterte in February 2025, he approved police to execute it, eradicating a key political rival from the fray. He’s presumably hoping equally that the arrest and extradition of Dela Rosa would assist weaken the Duterte camp forward of the 2028 presidential election, for which Sara Duterte has already declared her candidacy.
Nonetheless, even that might be inadequate to lastly conclude the political feud that has dominated politics within the Philippines over the previous two years. Supplied that Sara Duterte survives her impeachment trial, she’s going to focus her energies on the 2028 election – and the potential of raining down revenge on her enemies on the presidential workplace within the Malacañang Palace.
