A senator in the Philippines wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for an alleged crime against humanity fled the Senate building after a shootout, officials confirmed on May 14.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, 64, who was in the Senate’s protective custody following the issuing of the ICC warrant, escaped on May 13 after gunshots were exchanged between the Senate’s security personnel and government agents in a neighboring building.
On May 14, Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made a late-night television statement, urging the public to remain calm and saying a police investigation was underway.
“The government is not behind this. No soldier, no personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation entered the Senate,” Marcos said, according to the Manila Standard.
PTV, a television news channel in the Philippines, said police had captured a man suspected of being involved in the shooting.
“The Southern Police District (SPD) has confirmed that they have the suspect who fired a gun at the Senate last night, May 13,” PTV said in a May 14 post on X.
The senator was the national police chief under President Rodrigo Duterte, who was arrested in March 2025 and later transferred to the Netherlands, where the 80-year-old awaits trial at the ICC in The Hague on charges that include allegations that he was involved in extrajudicial killings
Dela Rosa and Duterte have separately denied authorizing extrajudicial killings, although the former president openly threatened drug suspects with death while he was in office.
An ICC warrant unsealed on May 11 charges Dela Rosa with the crime of murder of “no less than 32 persons” between July 2016 and the end of April 2018, when he led the national police force under Duterte and enforced crackdowns.
The charges in the ICC warrant relate to the period between 2011 and 2019. Duterte was president from 2016 to 2022, and before that, mayor of Davao City in the southern Philippines, and Dela Rosa worked with him in both roles as police chief.
Dela Rosa has questioned the legality of the ICC warrant and asked the Supreme Court to immediately stop the Philippine government from enforcing it. The court asked Dela Rosa and government officials on May 13 to provide more details in 72 hours.
Dela Rosa’s legal predicament came as political disputes escalated between the Duterte family and Marcos.
Duterte’s daughter Sara, who is the country’s vice president, was impeached by the House of Representatives on May 11 over alleged unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds, and a public threat to have Marcos, his wife, and the House speaker assassinated if she were killed.
Sara Duterte has blamed Marcos—whose father Ferdinand Marcos Sr. ruled the country from 1965 until he was ousted in 1986—for what she said was the kidnapping of her father.
‘No Obstruction of Justice’
Senate President Alan Cayetano, a political ally of Rodrigo Duterte, told a news briefing that he did not see any ICC arrest warrant, and Dela Rosa had been free to leave the Senate building.
“There is no obstruction of justice,” he said.
The United States is not a member of the ICC, which in November 2024 issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes during the Gaza conflict.
In February 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump enacted an executive order that imposed sanctions on the ICC over its alleged bias against Israel and the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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