Gunfire broke out Wednesday at the Philippine Senate as authorities tried to arrest Ronald Marapon dela Rosa, a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court, according to the Associated Press. AP said no one was hurt during the tense standoff in Manila.
The push to take dela Rosa into custody came after the ICC unsealed an arrest warrant for him two days earlier, AP reported. The warrant involves a charge of murder as a crime against humanity, tied to allegations that span the period when dela Rosa served as national police chief under former President Rodrigo Duterte.
AP said the ICC issued the warrant in November and charged dela Rosa with the crime against humanity of murder of no fewer than 32 people between July 2016 and the end of April 2018. Dela Rosa, 64, has vowed to fight the ICC arrest order and said he would seek all legal remedies, AP reported.
The standoff at the Senate occurred against a backdrop of the Philippines’ changing relationship with the ICC. The Philippines left the court in 2019 after telling the United Nations it was doing so following then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s announcement that she was opening a preliminary probe into allegations of extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
AP reported that the country has not rejoined the ICC under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who succeeded Duterte in 2022. The Marcos administration has said it would cooperate if the ICC asked international police to take Duterte into custody through a so-called red notice, and AP said it was not immediately clear whether such a notice was issued for dela Rosa.
Duterte, who served as president during the anti-drug crackdown, was arrested last year and sent to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity linked to the deadly drug crackdown. AP said Duterte remains jailed there awaiting trial, after judges rejected a request by his legal team to throw out the case on jurisdictional grounds related to the Philippines’ withdrawal from the court.
In its coverage, AP also described the ICC’s broader structure and mandate. The court was set up in 2002 to hold leaders and senior officials accountable for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. AP said the ICC has 125 member states, but three major global powers— the United States, Russia and China—are not members, while Ukraine officially joined in January 2025.
The AP story also outlined the ICC’s operational scope, noting that more than 900 staff work for the court and that its budget this year is just over 196 million euros (about $229 million). AP said the ICC operates as a court of last resort, meaning it takes on cases only when countries’ legal systems are unable or unwilling to prosecute suspects.
The ICC’s pursuit of suspects has also prompted sanctions and legal disputes involving its officials. AP said the Trump administration slapped sanctions on the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan, some ICC judges and Khan’s two deputies, accusing the court of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the United States and Israel. AP reported that the Trump administration previously sanctioned Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, during his first term, and that the Biden administration later lifted those sanctions.
Russia has also rejected the ICC’s authority, AP said, and issued a warrant for Khan and the ICC judge who signed President Vladimir Putin’s warrant. AP reported that Putin traveled overseas since the warrant was issued in 2023, including to ICC member state Mongolia, as well as to China and North Korea, which are not court members.