An international law expert is warning that events unfolding in the Philippines following the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa could damage former President Rodrigo Duterte’s chances of being released from detention while his case proceeds.
Ruben Carranza of the International Center for Transitional Justice said the ICC has already expressed concern about the existence of a support network that could help Duterte and his allies evade trial — and recent developments in Manila are feeding that concern.
“So this network, this idea that there is a network that supports Duterte and his allies is reinforced by what is happening in the Philippines,” Carranza said in an interview on ANC’s “Headstart.”
Duterte has been held at the ICC detention facility in The Hague since his arrest in March 2025. He filed a new petition for interim release after an earlier request was denied on flight risk grounds. Carranza said the Senate episode has made the court even less likely to look favorably on such a request.
“It’s very, very unlikely that the court will grant interim release seeing what’s happening in the Philippines,” he said.
Dela Rosa slipped out of the Senate at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday despite being placed under protective custody in the wake of the ICC warrant issued against him. His exit followed reports of gunshots inside the Senate compound, which some critics characterized as a possible diversion. The warrant identifies Dela Rosa as an alleged co-perpetrator in the crimes against humanity case linked to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Carranza noted that Dela Rosa, should he eventually be taken into ICC custody, may also seek interim release — though his own situation, as with Duterte’s, would be complicated by the optics of what occurred at the Senate.
The expert also pointed to Republic Act 9851 — the Philippine law covering crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide, and other crimes against humanity — as an existing legal mechanism through which Philippine authorities could surrender a person to an international tribunal.
Carranza reserved his sharpest criticism for what he described as a double standard in how the law is being applied, noting that Dela Rosa was afforded a level of political protection unavailable to ordinary citizens facing far more minor criminal charges.
“If we zoom out and see and ask whether this luxury is afforded to ordinary Filipinos who face warrants of arrest for far lesser crimes than killing thousands of people, then you have your answer. It’s selective justice and it’s not fair,” he said.
