Gunfire broke out amid chaotic scenes at the Philippine Senate yesterday, after armed men attempted to enter areas of the building where Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is hiding out to avoid an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Dela Rosa, the chief enforcer of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent “war on drugs” campaign, locked himself in his Senate office on Monday, after fleeing from officers from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
A few hours later, the ICC announced that it had unsealed a warrant seeking the 64-year-old’s arrest on charges of crimes against humanity. The warrant, which was initially issued on November 6, was issued after the Pretrial Chamber “found reasonable grounds” that Dela Rosa was “criminally responsible as an indirect co-perpetrator… for the crime against humanity of murder.”
On the same day, a leadership coup in the Senate installed Senator Peter Allan Cayetano, a Duterte ally, as the chamber’s president, who immediately said that Dela Rosa was under the Senate’s protection.
Inquirer.net reported that the gunfire erupted after unidentified armed men attempted to enter the area of the Senate building where Dela Rosa is currently laying low.
Chaos subsequently ensued in the crowded upper halls of the building. “The sound of several gunshots sent journalists fleeing for cover, minutes after law enforcers with rifles and protective gear went up the stairs of the legislative building,” it stated. Reuters journalists said that they “heard more than a dozen shots ring out at the Senate as those inside scrambled for cover,” the news agency reported.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla later told the media that the first shots were fired by personnel belonging to the Senate Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA).
“At approximately 7:46 p.m., armed men tried to enter through the second floor but were stopped by the OSAA,” said Remulla. “They had firearms with them but the OSAA fired the warning shots. They retreated to the back and then started firing.” He said that there were no casualties.
The identity of the armed men is unclear. The heads of the NBI and the Philippine National Police (PNP) subsequently denied that any of their men were involved, and Remulla said that they did not come to arrest Dela Rosa on the ICC warrant. “We don’t know who is behind this but we will find them,” he said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also called for calm and stated that the government was not responsible for the incident, Inquirer.net reported. He added that the Senate and the PNP would conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.
“We will find out who caused this disturbance,” he said in a video message. “Was this really just an encounter, or was it connected to destabilization efforts or people trying to start trouble?” PNP chief Police General Jose Melencio C. Nartatez Jr. said that his agency was working with the OSAA “to ensure that no stone is left unturned.”
Dela Rosa is reported to have slipped out of the Senate building since yesterday’s events, and his whereabouts are currently unknown. “Several sources confirmed that Senator Bato is no longer in the Senate premises,” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said at a press briefing today.
Dela Rosa is wanted by the ICC for his prominent role in the anti-drug campaign, which raged throughout Duterte’s six years in office (2016-2022). Estimates of the number killed during the campaign range from an official estimate of around 6,000 to as many as 30,000.
Duterte was arrested in March 2025 and extradited to the ICC for his role in the campaign. He is set to stand trial after a pretrial panel last month ruled that there were “substantial grounds” to believe that the 81-year-old was guilty of crimes against humanity. It has long been expected that Dela Rosa would be next in line, and prior to Monday’s dramatic flight into the Senate, he had not appeared in public since November.
Shortly before yesterday’s strange episode, Dela Rosa had urged people to turn out to block his arrest and handover to the ICC.
“I am appealing to you, I hope you can help me. Do not allow another Filipino to be brought to The Hague,” he said in a video on Facebook from his Senate office, Reuters reported.
The ICC standoff is closely related to the ongoing political feud between Duterte’s family and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his former ally. After coming to office in 2022, Marcos initially called on the ICC to drop the Philippine drug war case and asserted that it had no jurisdiction over the Philippines, but as his relationship with Duterte soured, he reconsidered his opposition to the case against his political rival. When the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Duterte in February 2025, he authorized police to execute it.
The feud has also resulted in the impeachment of Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte, who has now been impeached twice by the House of Representatives for a range of transgressions, most recently on Monday.
The current drama at the Senate clearly marks an intensification of the feud and is a sign that it has become an issue of political life and death for the Duterte and Marcos clans and their respective supporters. With Dela Rosa now on the lam, and armed men involved, the rivalry seems set to escalate further.
