A Philippine senator wanted by the International Criminal Court slipped out of the Senate after a chaotic nighttime incident in which security personnel fired shots, officials said.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who has been sought by the ICC on charges alleging crimes against humanity, left the heavily guarded Senate complex in Pasay after gunfire erupted late Wednesday. Authorities say the shots were fired by the building’s security staff during a confrontation with a government agent, creating confusion that allowed the senator to exit the premises.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered a late-night televised appeal for calm as police opened an investigation into the event, including inquiries into whether the shooting and altercation were staged to provide cover for dela Rosa’s departure.
Senate President Alan Cayetano, who had placed dela Rosa under the chamber’s protection earlier, said there was no obstruction of justice in the senator’s exit and asserted he had not seen an ICC arrest warrant. Cayetano said, in effect, that the senator was free to leave the Senate grounds. Critics have called for accountability from Cayetano and the Senate’s security chief for letting a wanted lawmaker escape custody.
The ICC reportedly unsealed a warrant earlier this week charging dela Rosa with the crime against humanity of murder in connection with operations carried out while he led the national police from July 2016 through April 2018. The warrant alleges the killing of ‘no less than 32 persons’ during that period. Dela Rosa and former president Rodrigo Duterte, under whom dela Rosa served, have denied ordering extrajudicial killings. Duterte was himself arrested in March of last year on an ICC warrant related to the anti-drug campaign.
Dela Rosa, 64, had been absent from the Senate for months because of concerns he might be arrested. He reappeared on Monday, arriving in Cayetano’s car, and that shift in his attendance helped Cayetano secure the support of 13 of 24 senators to become Senate president. When National Bureau of Investigation agents tried to serve the ICC warrant at the Senate, dela Rosa ran into a narrow stairway and allied senators took him into protective custody, according to accounts of the episode.
The senator’s legal troubles have intensified an already fraught political rivalry between the Duterte family and the Marcos administration. Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president, has accused Marcos of effectively facilitating her father’s transfer to a foreign court and has described it as ‘kidnapping.’
The wider political tensions were evident this week when the House of Representatives, dominated by allies of Marcos, impeached Vice President Sara Duterte on allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and for making a public threat to order the assassination of President Marcos, his spouse and the House speaker if she herself were killed amid the dispute. The vice president has denied wrongdoing and declined to answer many of the specific allegations.
The Senate is scheduled to assemble as an impeachment court, as soon as Monday, to prepare for the vice president’s trial, Senate officials said.
Police and investigators continue to probe the circumstances of the shooting inside the Senate complex, who fired the shots, and whether the disturbance was linked to an effort to help dela Rosa avoid arrest. Officials have not yet disclosed whether additional charges or disciplinary actions will follow.
