May 25, 2026
MANILA – Malacañang said on Sunday that warrants of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the other co-perpetrators of former President Rodrigo Duterte in his crimes against humanity of murder case must be served by law enforcers “immediately.”
This is to prevent a scenario similar to fugitive Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s eluding the ICC arrest warrant against him more than a week after he slipped out of the Senate premises where authorities had sought to apprehend him.
Palace press officer Claire Castro said forthcoming ICC warrants should be enforced promptly, citing a Philippine law and a recent Supreme Court decision that turned down Dela Rosa’s plea for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the ICC warrant issued against him.
“These [warrants] do not need to go through local courts,” Castro said in an interview on dzMM.
She noted that Republic Act No. 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity, already laid out options the government may undertake.
Section 17 of the law states: “In the interest of justice, the relevant Philippine authorities may dispense with the investigation or prosecution of a crime punishable under this Act if another court or international tribunal is already conducting the investigation or undertaking the prosecution of such crime.”
“Instead, the authorities may surrender or extradite suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the appropriate international court, if any, or to another State pursuant to the applicable extradition laws and treaties.”
The measure that led to the law’s enactment in 2009 was supported, among others, by Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada and Loren Legarda.
Aside from Dela Rosa, ICC documents have tagged seven others—including Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go—as Duterte’s co-perpetrators in the deadly antidrug campaign that has killed more than 6,000 individuals, per official government estimates.
But the high court on Sunday clarified that it has yet to decide on Dela Rosa’s main petition regarding the constitutionality of the ICC arrest warrant.
“There is still no decision on the main petition as stated in the Court’s Press Release last Wednesday,” it said in a statement, following claims online that a final ruling has already been made.
Castro, however, noted that the warrants issued by the Hague-based tribunal are valid because the ICC is an international court and not considered a foreign state.
“The law is clear [on what the government can do]. And the government’s stance is that it is not violating any laws [in enforcing the warrants of arrest issued by the ICC],” she said.
Yield to authorities
Meanwhile Philippine National Police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. has appealed to Dela Rosa, a former police chief himself, to cooperate with authorities.
“We are appealing to Senator Bato’s enduring sense of duty as a lifelong law enforcer to ensure this legal process is resolved with the utmost dignity,” Nartatez said in a statement on Sunday.
The PNP chief said airport and maritime units are on alert and regional and local police units have been instructed to exercise maximum restraint and avoid unnecessary escalation should they encounter the senator.
National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag earlier said Dela Rosa was “armed and dangerous,” a claim that the fugitive senator’s lawyer denied.
In a statement, lawyer Israelito Torreon said “This characterization is without factual basis and, we submit, does not contribute to an orderly and peaceful resolution of the legal issues at hand.”
“Senator Dela Rosa is a sitting Senator of the Republic of the Philippines who has, at all times, conducted himself peacefully and in a manner consistent with his dignity as a public servant and as a Filipino citizen,” he added.
No stopping arrests
Castro, meanwhile, urged respondents of any future arrest warrants to yield themselves to authorities and not go into hiding like Dela Rosa.
She noted that most of the alleged co-perpetrators were former law enforcement officers familiar with the law.
“They should know what a warrant of arrest means, right? So, in other words, if there is a warrant of arrest, and there is no TRO from the Supreme Court, they themselves should surrender,” Castro said.
Others who have been tagged as Duterte’s co-perpetrators are:
• Vitaliano Aguirre II, former justice secretary
• Vicente Danao, former Davao City police chief and deputy director for operations of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group
• Oscar Albayalde, former PNP National Capital Region chief
• Dante Gierran, former NBI Davao regional director
• Isidro Lapeña, former chief of the Davao City police and of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency
• Camilo Cascolan, former PNP director for operations and Davao regional police finance chief, who died in 2023.
International law expert Ross Tugade said the executive branch should “put [its] foot down and truly honor whatever residual obligations we still have under the ICC.”
Despite no longer being a party to the Rome Statute since 2019, Malacañang said the country still has residual obligations as the drug war crimes were allegedly committed by Duterte and his co-perpetrators when the ICC still had jurisdiction.
“At this point, there is really nothing stopping the government from enforcing any warrant of arrest from the ICC. There is really no obstacle for them to hesitate in implementing any process coming from the ICC,” said Tugade, one of the accredited ICC assistants to counsel. —WITH REPORTS FROM ANDREA GREGORIO, KEITH CLORES, DIANNE SAMPANG, AND ZACARIAN SARAO