The Philippine justice secretary has ordered law enforcement to apprehend a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity, a day after the country’s top court rejected his bid to block his arrest.
Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former police chief and lead enforcer in the deadly so-called “war on drugs” during Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency, would be tracked down and anyone helping him evade arrest would “face consequences”, Fredderick Vida said on Thursday.
Dela Rosa emerged from six months of hiding last week and took refuge at the Senate for several days before slipping away in the early hours of May 14, after a night of chaos and gunfire, following his appeal for help and claim that his arrest was imminent.
Dela Rosa was Duterte’s top enforcer of a bloody crackdown during which thousands of alleged drug dealers were shot dead in police operations. At the peak of the campaign, murders of drug users spiked dramatically, as police blamed killings on turf wars.
The ICC estimated that 12,000 to 30,000 people were killed between 2016 and 2019 in Duterte’s “war on drugs.”
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Philippines Orders Arrest of Fugitive Senator Wanted by ICC
05/21/2026
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