Shots ring out during Philippine Senate standoff over ICC arrest

Gunshots rang out inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, Metro Manila, on May 13 as authorities moved to arrest Senator Ronald Marapon Dela Rosa, turning a legal operation into a test of the country’s political and security machinery. More than a dozen shots were heard, people inside the chamber were told to run for cover, and troops were already deployed around the building as the confrontation unfolded.

Senate officials later said everyone was safe and that no one had been hurt, wounded or killed. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said investigators would review security footage to determine who fired the shots, while Senate Secretary Mark Llandro Mendoza said there were no immediate casualties and that the military had been asked to help secure the facility. Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano said he had received calls from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro as the crisis developed.

Marcos moved quickly to calm the scene, saying no government personnel were involved and urging the public not to panic. He promised an investigation and said, “We will get to the bottom of this.” He said the Senate and the Philippine National Police would investigate together, a sign that the state is now managing not just a criminal enforcement problem but a political one with institutional consequences.

The confrontation centered on Dela Rosa, the former national police chief and one of the most closely identified enforcers of Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. Hours before the standoff, Dela Rosa had urged supporters to gather and block his arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court. He also posted a video from his Senate office asking Filipinos not to allow another Filipino to be brought to The Hague, and said he was taking refuge there after being placed under legislative protection on May 11.

The ICC unsealed its arrest warrant for Dela Rosa on May 11, after it had been issued secretly on November 6, 2025. The court says he is alleged to have been an indirect co-perpetrator of murder in conduct that took place at least between July 3, 2016 and the end of April 2018, during which no fewer than 32 people were killed. The court also says he was part of a broader common plan running from about November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019.

According to the ICC record, Dela Rosa served as chief of the Philippine National Police from July 1, 2016 to April 19, 2018, and later as director general of the Bureau of Corrections from April 30 to October 12, 2018. Amnesty International said he was a key figure in implementing Duterte’s war on drugs and called on the government to arrest him and surrender him to The Hague. The group said he is the second person to have a confirmed ICC arrest warrant in the Philippines case, after Duterte’s arrest and transfer to The Hague in March 2025.