Gunfire erupts in Philippine Senate during arrest attempt on senator

Gunfire shattered the Philippine Senate on Wednesday night as authorities moved to arrest Ronald dela Rosa, the 64-year-old former national police chief who became one of Rodrigo Duterte’s fiercest enforcers. No one was hurt, but the confrontation exposed the fragility of the country’s political order as a sitting senator faced arrest over an International Criminal Court warrant tied to the bloody drug war.

Dela Rosa had been under protective custody by allied senators since Monday, after the ICC unsealed a warrant that had originally been issued in November. The warrant alleges murder of no less than 32 persons between July 2016 and the end of April 2018, the period when dela Rosa led the Philippine National Police under Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown. Philippine authorities said the court is seeking to have him turned over to The Hague.

Witnesses and Reuters journalists later reported hearing more than a dozen shots as people inside scrambled for cover. Senate security and police swarmed the building in Pasay, just south of Manila, while protesters gathered outside and the chamber locked down around an arrest effort that turned into a public test of state authority. It was not immediately clear who fired the shots or why.

Senate President Alan Cayetano said the chamber had been told gunshots were fired and later warned of the danger inside the building. “The emotions are high here,” he said. “This is the Senate of the Philippines and we are allegedly under attack.” His remarks underscored how the confrontation had moved beyond one senator’s legal fight and into a broader battle over institutional control.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged the public to stay calm and said the government would get to the bottom of what happened. Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla Jr. said he had been deployed by Marcos to secure the senators, that no government personnel were involved in the incident, and that authorities would review security-camera footage. The National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police were among the agencies now facing scrutiny over what unfolded inside one of the country’s most sensitive institutions.

Dela Rosa had already called on supporters to gather at the Senate to block any attempt to take him into custody and said he would seek all legal remedies. The clash laid bare how deeply Duterte’s anti-drug campaign still divides the Philippines, with the prospect of a former police chief and sitting senator being forced toward The Hague now colliding with the demands of courts, police, and a political class pulled apart by factional loyalties.