MANILA, Philippines — An International Criminal Court arrest warrant unsealed Monday charges Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa with the crime against humanity of murder, escalating the legal fallout from former President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly anti-drugs campaign. Dela Rosa, who served as national police chief when the crackdown began, said Tuesday he will fight any attempt to send him to The Hague.
The warrant, originally issued in November, charges dela Rosa with the murder of “no less than 32 persons” between July 2016 and the end of April 2018, the period when he led the Philippine National Police under Duterte’s direction.
“If I have something to answer for, I will face those in our local courts and not before foreigners,” dela Rosa told reporters in the Senate, which took him into what it described as “protective custody” on Monday when he reappeared after months of absence.
Dela Rosa appealed directly to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the man who succeeded Duterte in 2022. “Don’t bring me to The Hague,” he said, adding: “I will avail of all legal processes.”
His arrest would extend the accountability chapter of a crackdown that human rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of people, largely from poor urban communities. Duterte was arrested last year and is currently detained by the ICC in the Netherlands awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity connected to the killings.
Dela Rosa, a longtime Duterte loyalist who also once led the police force in the southern city of Davao where Duterte built his political career, defended the campaign on Tuesday. “My role was to lead the war on drugs, and that war on drugs was not meant to annihilate people,” he said. “When the lives of police officers came under threat, of course they needed to defend themselves.”
Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro signaled in a news briefing that the Marcos administration could follow the same path it took with Duterte. “We have an obligation that all those who should be held to account should be held responsible,” Castro said, citing a Philippine law enacted to address crimes against humanity like genocide.
Castro said dela Rosa cannot invoke parliamentary immunity from arrest while attending formal sessions or staying within the Senate because the crimes he is charged with are serious and punishable by a long prison term.
Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, a move human rights activists said was intended to escape accountability. The court has maintained that it retains jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member state.
Nearly 350 law enforcement officers have been deployed outside the Senate building, sparking concerns from dela Rosa and allied senators. Officials said the deployment was for keeping order and not to assist in any eventual arrest of the senator.