MANILA, Philippines — The Justice Secretary has warned on Thursday those that would assist Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa in evading an arrest warrant from the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) for crimes in opposition to humanity.
Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida stated that anybody doing this may face home and worldwide authorized penalties.
This as Dela Rosa has been declared by each the Workplace of the Solicitor Basic (OSG) and the Division of Justice as “fugitive from justice.”
They stated that the Supreme Court docket had cleared the best way for his arrest on fees of crimes in opposition to humanity within the ICC after it denied his request for a short lived restraining order (TRO) to dam the arrest warrant.
“He’s charged as a co-perpetrator within the crime in opposition to humanity,” Vida stated in a information convention. “Senator Bato is a fugitive from justice, and he must be dropped at the ICC to face the fees earlier than him.”
READ: NBI receives ‘many leads’ on Dela Rosa’s whereabouts
Vida stated the Philippine Nationwide Police and the Nationwide Bureau of Investigation had been ordered to right away implement the ICC arrest order in opposition to the senator—former President Rodrigo Duterte’s first nationwide police chief, who applied his brutal battle on medication that killed 1000’s of Filipinos.
‘Validly issued warrant’
“Those that could be aiding, abetting, or serving to Senator Bato evade the legislation, there are penalties,” he stated. “We all know that underneath the rule of legislation, there may be accountability … not solely within the eyes of Philippine legislation but in addition underneath the legislation of the ICC, as a result of it is a validly issued arrest warrant.”
READ: Drilon: Dela Rosa’s function as senator now restricted amid ICC warrant
He didn’t specify what motion could also be taken in opposition to individuals who assist the senator evade legislation enforcement.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court docket voted 9-5-1 to reject Dela Rosa’s request for a TRO to cease authorities from implementing the warrant. The excessive courtroom, nevertheless, stated it had but to rule on the constitutional points raised in opposition to the warrant by Dela Rosa.
The OSG stated in a press release that the denial of the TRO “affirms that there is no such thing as a authorized obstacle to the enforcement of the ICC warrant.”
Duterte is being held in an ICC detention facility in The Hague, the Netherlands, the place he was flown following his arrest in Manila in March final 12 months. Duterte, Dela Rosa, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go and 6 others are accused as oblique co-perpetrators within the crimes in opposition to humanity of homicide and tried homicide within the drug battle.
The arrest warrant was issued by the ICC secretly in November 2025. Listening to phrase about it, Dela Rosa went into hiding and appeared on the Senate solely on Could 11 to vote for Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate President and head of the brand new majority within the chamber. It was the identical day that the ICC unsealed, or made the arrest warrant, public.
The senator evaded arrest by NBI brokers ready for him on the time. He sought refuge within the Senate the place the senators underneath Cayetano took him into “protecting custody.”
Dela Rosa, nevertheless, sneaked out of the Senate in a automotive owned by Sen. Robinhood Padilla early on Thursday and hours after an trade of gunfire between personnel from the Senate Workplace of the Sergeant-at-Arms and the NBI, in line with investigators. Nobody was injured in that capturing incident.
Vida stated the implementation of the ICC warrant was not a political act however a state obligation.
He stated that the drug battle victims and their households, together with kids, had been ready for justice for years.
“We’re pursuing this in order that the ends of justice could also be achieved,” he stated, referring to individuals who had been killed within the drug battle and the family members they left behind.
“They’ll now not get attorneys or search a TRO,” he stated. “The duty of the federal government is to help, support and assist them receive the justice that they search, and the arrest of Senator Bato is a part of that.”
Dedicated to rule of legislation
In its remark in opposition to Dela Rosa’s request for a TRO, the OSG stated the senator failed to satisfy the baseline authorized necessities for an injunction. The senator couldn’t reveal a “clear and unmistakable proper” needing rapid protect, and he was unable to show any “pressing and irreparable damage” he may undergo, it stated.
Past the authorized technicalities, the OSG maintained that the federal government was dedicated to human rights and the rule of legislation. “There are crimes so grave that our authorities can’t merely look away,” it stated.
Dela Rosa’s current actions mirrored “the essence of a fugitive from justice who isn’t entitled to any judicial reduction,” the OSG stated.
Citing an earlier courtroom ruling, it stated {that a} fugitive from justice “is one who not solely flees after conviction to keep away from punishment, but in addition those that, after being charged, flee to keep away from prosecution.”
The OSG cited the senator’s public pronouncements in opposition to submission to authorities, his refusal to give up, his recourse to judicial cures whereas evading arrest, his “suspicious exit” from the Senate premises, the refusal of his attorneys to reveal his location, and his spouse’s assertion that he “escaped.” It stated that taken collectively, these “reveal intent to evade the legislation.”
“His conduct clearly locations him inside the definition of a fugitive from justice,” the OSG stated.
PNP border watch
It urged the Supreme Court docket not solely to take a look at the legislation but in addition on the “highest objective of legislation, which is to achieve justice.”
Dela Rosa’s case forces the nation to confront a deeper inside query, and the federal government’s response “will reveal what the rule of legislation actually means to the Filipino individuals,” it stated.
The PNP ready its numerous border models to stop Dela Rosa from leaving the nation.
“Police forces … had been alerted to be looking out and to accentuate intelligence monitoring on all exit factors, together with the southern backdoor,” PNP chief Police Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. stated in a press release on Thursday.
“The Philippine Nationwide Police … has alerted the personnel of the Maritime Group and the Aviation Safety Group in opposition to any try of Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa to depart the nation,” Nartatez stated. —WITH A REPORT FROM JASON SIGALES
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