The Philippine Supreme Court docket yesterday rejected a bid by Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa for a short lived restraining order to forestall his arrest and switch to the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC).
On Might 11, the ICC unsealed a warrant for Dela Rosa’s arrest, charging him with crimes in opposition to humanity for his function in main former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “conflict on medicine” marketing campaign. Dela Rosa subsequently fled into his workplace within the Senate, earlier than slipping out of the constructing earlier than daybreak on Might 14.
The senator, whose present whereabouts are unknown, additionally filed three petitions to the Supreme Court docket, requesting that it cease authorities from arresting him and surrendering him to The Hague-based court docket.
In a 9-5-1 ruling handed down yesterday, the Supreme Court docket justices denied Dela Rosa’s petition for a short lived restraining order and established order ante order, the court docket stated in a press release. It clarified that the judges “solely selected the prayers for interim reduction. The principle points raised by the events of their pleadings and motions are but to be resolved in the principle case.” It added that the Supreme Court docket would launch its full decision, in addition to the concurring and dissenting opinions of the 15 justices, on Might 25.
Dela Rosa, who served as Philippine Nationwide Police chief for the primary two years of Duterte’s presidential time period, is needed by the ICC for his distinguished function within the anti-drug marketing campaign, which raged all through Duterte’s six years in workplace (2016-2022). Estimates of the quantity killed through the marketing campaign vary from an official estimate of round 6,000 to as many as 30,000.
If arrested, Dela Rosa would be part of his former boss, Duterte, who was arrested in March 2025 and extradited to the ICC for his function within the marketing campaign. The 81-year-old is ready to face trial after a pretrial panel final month dominated that there have been “substantial grounds” to consider that he was responsible of crimes in opposition to humanity.
The Supreme Court docket ruling clears the way in which for the potential arrest of Dela Rosa, whom the Workplace of the Solicitor Common described final week as a “fugitive from justice.”
Talking after yesterday’s ruling, Claire Castro, a spokesperson for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., stated that the presidential palace will depart it to the Division of Justice to interpret the Supreme Court docket’s ruling. Justice Minister Fredderick Vida stated final week that the nation would “undoubtedly” honor the ICC warrant.
“For now, we are able to say that the warrant of arrest is legitimate in opposition to Senator Bato dela Rosa,” Castro stated.
Dela Rosa’s legal professionals stated that their shopper will exhaust all of the accessible authorized cures, together with submitting a movement for reconsideration to the Supreme Court docket.
“In the present day’s decision shouldn’t be a judgment on the deserves,” the legal professionals stated in a press release. “It isn’t a closing ruling on the legality of implementing an ICC course of inside Philippine territory.”
The ruling is the most recent growth within the political drama that has monopolized Philippine political protection for the previous two weeks. On Might 11, Dela Rosa emerged from six months of hiding in an effort to forged the deciding vote for a Senate management coup that put in Alan Peter Cayetano, an ally of former President Duterte, because the chamber’s president. The intention of this was to forestall or frustrate the approaching impeachment of Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, who was impeached by the Home of Representatives the identical day for a spread of transgressions. Duterte’s impeachment trial started within the Senate earlier this week.
Nevertheless, Dela Rosa was confronted by officers from the Nationwide Bureau of Investigation who confirmed up on the Senate constructing to execute the ICC warrant. He then hid inside his Senate workplace, the place Cayetano and different allies subsequently declared that that they had positioned him underneath the chamber’s “protecting custody.” The following standoff erupted into violence on Wednesday evening as Senate safety personnel and authorities brokers making an attempt to apprehend Dela Rosa briefly exchanged fireplace inside the Senate constructing.
Nevertheless a lot they might be veiled within the language of excessive precept, each the ICC warrants and the impeachment of Sara Duterte sit downstream of the political feud that has raged between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Duterte household for a lot of the previous two years. As The Diplomat particulars in a brand new video, the 2 leaders teamed as much as nice political impact forward of the 2022 presidential election, after they each had been elected with decisive majorities, earlier than falling out sharply over a mixture of private and political disagreements.
The 2 sides at the moment are locked in a zero-sum vendetta through which Marcos and his allies are utilizing the establishments of the state to cripple the Dutertes earlier than the presidential election of 2028, for which Sara Duterte has already introduced her candidacy. With Duterte nicely positioned to keep away from impeachment within the Senate, it’s unlikely that Dela Rosa’s arrest would convey the present, attention-monopolizing standoff to an finish.
