MANILA - A Philippine lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his role in the country’s deadly war on drugs has fled the Senate building, authorities said on Thursday.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa had taken refuge in the building earlier in an attempt to avoid arrest and extradition to the Netherlands to answer an ICC indictment for crimes against humanity.
“The sergeant-at-arms has confirmed that he is no longer in the building,” Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters on Thursday.
Cayetano said dela Rosa’s wife sent him a message confirming that her husband had left the building.
He did not say where dela Rosa had gone and angrily denied accusations that the Senate leadership had helped the suspect leave and evade government agents seeking to arrest him.
The confirmation came a day after gunfire rang out during a chaotic session at the Senate on Wednesday.
Dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of.
“Several sources confirmed that the Senator … is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” presidential communications undersecretary Claire Castro said earlier.
Gunshots were heard late Wednesday inside the Senate and people there scrambled for cover, hours after dela Rosa, 64, appealed on social media for supporters to mobilise, saying law enforcement agents were coming to arrest him.
The incident sparked chaos, with a heavy presence of police and armed guards at the Senate, protests outside and more than a dozen shots fired just moments after marines were called in to bolster security.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr met security chiefs on Thursday and police said one person had been detained, with investigations underway to identify individuals who tried to enter the Senate, and bullet casings and assault rifle magazines recovered.
“The person has provided names, but these still need confirmation,” police spokesperson Randulf Tuano told DZBB radio. (Story continues below)
Police SWAT members stand outside the Philippine Senate, where Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa was holed up and refusing to submit to arrest, on the night of May 13, 2026. (Photo: Reuters)
Warrant unsealed
The ICC on Monday unsealed a warrant, dated November 2025, for dela Rosa’s arrest. He has filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court, arguing the ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines after it withdrew from the international institution in 2019.
Earlier on Thursday, while entering the heavily guarded Senate, dela Rosa’s lawyer Jimmy Bondoc said he had spoken to him during the night and believed he was inside.
“I asked him if you have plans to leave, he said none,” Bondoc told reporters.
The tough-talking dela Rosa enjoyed celebrity status as Duterte’s top lieutenant, overseeing a fierce crackdown during which thousands of alleged drug dealers were slain, with rights groups accusing police of systematic murders and cover-ups.
Police reject the accusations and say the more than 6,000 people killed in Project Double Barrel were all armed and had resisted arrest.
Activists say the real death toll may never be known, with users and peddlers gunned down daily in mysterious slumland killings that police blamed on vigilantes and turf wars.
Marcos has sought to distance his government from the Senate drama and insisted no order was given to apprehend dela Rosa, who on Tuesday appealed to the president not to arrest him.
National Bureau of Investigation chief Melvin Matibag confirmed intelligence officers from the agency were at a building near the Senate on Wednesday, but were unarmed.
The possibility the incident could have been staged was also part of the investigation, he said.
Dela Rosa disappeared from public view last November, before showing up at the Senate on Monday and narrowly evading arrest by government agents who chased him up the stairs.
In an interview with DZBB aired early Thursday, dela Rosa said he will “exhaust all available remedies” to block his transfer to the ICC.
Having learned about the conditions under which Duterte was being held, he was no longer willing to fight his case in The Hague, he said.
It was unclear when the interview was conducted. Dela Rosa has denied involvement in illegal killings.
Big test for Marcos
The Senate standoff is a major challenge to the authority of Marcos, who relied on support of the influential Duterte family to win a 2022 election before an acrimonious fallout that led to him handing over Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC.
Duterte, 81, is set to become the first former Asian head of state to go on trial at the ICC. He denies inciting police to commit murder.
Political tension has mounted in recent days over dela Rosa and Monday’s impeachment of the former president’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, Marcos’ former ally and running mate.
Sara Duterte, who is in The Hague visiting her father, is fighting for her political survival, facing an impeachment trial in the Senate that could derail her run for the next presidency in 2028.
“What we are seeing now is the administration using all government resources to demolish political opposition,” she said in comments shared by her office.
She said dela Rosa would be the subject of extraordinary rendition, likening it to what she called her father’s illegal abduction.
“That is how the world saw it then. And that is also what they are trying to do now,” she said.
