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16-05-2026
MANILA: The Philippine Senate was locked down with military personnel seen entering the building where a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had sought refuge.
Rounds of gunfire were heard but officials have not revealed who fired the shots. They said there were no casualties.
Senator Ronald Dela Rosa said earlier he believed his arrest was imminent and urged Filipinos to prevent it. He is safe and with security personnel, officials said.
He is accused by the ICC of killing dozens of people when he was police chief during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, in which thousands of alleged dealers were shot and killed. Duterte has been held at The Hague since March 2025.
TV footage showed police commandos in fatigues entering the Senate building in Manila early on Wednesday evening, with anti-riot policemen with shields and helmets surrounding the perimeter.
Protesters outside the Senate demanded Dela Rosa’s detention, calling for him to be sent to stand trial with Duterte.
His lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court to block his extradition.
The senate building has been locked down since the shots, and senators are holed up inside. The government has denied trying to arrest Dela Rosa, and says it is still investigating who opened fire.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the president had given “strict instructions” to secure the senators.
Dela Rosa is “safe” and with security personnel, he added.
“We are not here to arrest Senator Dela Rosa,” he said. “In fact, we are here to protect him. Let that be clear. I made that clear to his family.”
No one has been arrested for the shooting, Remulla said.
Senate speaker Alan Peter Cayetano asked the public to send “any videos that could help with the investigation”.
The senate is currently controlled by allies of Duterte, whose daughter Sara is the vice president.
An alliance between the Duterte family and that of current President Bongbong Marcos collapsed two years ago, setting off a bitter feud between them.
On Monday the lower house of congress voted to start impeachment of the vice president but the senate has the power to block it.
Duterte has refused to recognize the ICC proceedings, arguing that during his presidency in 2019 the Philippines had pulled out of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding agreement but last month, judges in the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber rejected that argument on the grounds that the alleged crimes had happened between 2011 and 2019 while the Philippines was still a member of the ICC paving the way for Duterte to stand trial.
Just short of his 80th birthday, Rodrigo Duterte, a man who once vowed to purge his country through a bloody anti-drugs and crime campaign, found himself outmaneuvered and in custody.
The former president was met by Philippines police as he arrived in Manila on a flight from Hong Kong, where he had been rallying support for his candidates for the upcoming mid-term election among the large Filipino diaspora there.
The much-talked-about warrant for his arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) was, it turned out, already in the hands of the Philippines government, which moved swiftly to execute it.
A frail-looking Mr Duterte, walking with a stick, was moved to an air force base within the airport perimeter. A chartered jet was quickly prepared to take him to the ICC in The Hague. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
