Video shows Senator Dela Rosa rushing into Senate amid ICC warrant
Dela Rosa sprinted into the Senate as a sealed ICC warrant for killings tied to Duterte's drug war became public, and the chamber shielded him from arrest.
Video captured Senator Ronald dela Rosa hurrying into the Philippine Senate just as the International Criminal Court’s warrant against him surfaced, turning a law-enforcement action into a test of whether domestic political protection can blunt international accountability. The Senate later granted him protection from arrest, underscoring how a chamber built to legislate can also become a shield for one of the most prominent figures linked to Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
The warrant, issued confidentially under seal by ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I on Nov. 6, 2025, became public on May 11, 2026 after the court unsealed it. ICC prosecutors said the case concerns Dela Rosa’s alleged liability as a co-perpetrator in crimes against humanity tied to at least 32 killings between July 2016 and April 2018, the period when he led the Philippine National Police under Duterte. The court said the warrant had been conveyed to Philippine authorities.
Dela Rosa had not been seen in public since November before returning to the Senate on May 11, 2026 to take part in a leadership shakeup vote. The confrontation reportedly involved National Bureau of Investigation agents, and former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said the agents were trying to serve the ICC warrant. Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano said the Senate would allow an arrest only if it came from a Philippine court, a position that pushed the dispute into the center of the country’s legal and constitutional divide.
The stakes reach far beyond one senator. Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, which ran from 2016 to 2022, has been described by prosecutors and human rights groups as leaving thousands dead, with estimates ranging from about 6,000 in official figures to as many as 30,000 in rights-group tallies. Duterte himself was arrested in March 2025 and taken to The Hague, where he faces ICC proceedings after a pre-trial panel found substantial grounds to believe he was responsible for crimes against humanity linked to the drug war.
The same day Dela Rosa’s warrant became public, the Senate ordered Vice-President Sara Duterte to face trial on corruption and bribery allegations that could shape her 2028 presidential prospects. Together, the two moves showed how the political legacy of the Duterte years is now being tested on parallel tracks, in a courtroom abroad and inside the country’s own institutions.
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