The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group stands prepared to carry out the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the Philippine National Police said Thursday — but only once the Department of Justice issues a formal directive to act.
“The PNP’s specific unit has enough numbers to effect a warrant of arrest for anyone, be they a senator or not,” PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Randulf Tuaño told reporters at Camp Crame. “The particular unit assigned to do it is the CIDG.”
Tuaño’s statement came after the Supreme Court denied dela Rosa’s bid to block enforcement of the ICC warrant without a local court order — a ruling that raised immediate questions about whether police could move to detain the senator. Tuaño said the agency was still deferring to the DOJ.
“We’re waiting on the orders of the DOJ as to whether to implement the warrant or not,” he said.
Tuaño also said he could not confirm whether the PNP had officially received the ICC warrant, and when asked about dela Rosa’s current location, offered only that the agency was honoring “the ongoing processes.” He later clarified that the DOJ was the agency it was deferring to on that matter as well.
Dela Rosa served as PNP chief from 2016 to 2018 under then-President Rodrigo Duterte and was the primary enforcer of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, which human rights groups estimate claimed as many as 30,000 lives. Duterte himself was arrested and transferred to ICC custody in March 2025 to face crimes against humanity charges.
The senator had been absent from the Senate for six months before resurfacing on May 11, at which point the ICC publicly confirmed it had sought his arrest. The National Bureau of Investigation attempted to serve him the warrant but pulled back after the Senate placed him under its protective custody.
Tensions escalated on May 13 when dela Rosa claimed NBI and PNP personnel were moving to detain him. Senate sergeant-at-arms Mao Aplasca verbally confronted an NBI agent spotted near the chamber’s premises, then fired three gunshots at him, according to Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla. Remulla noted that the NBI agent was part of a contingent deployed not to the Senate itself but to the adjacent Government Service Insurance System property, which leases space to the upper chamber. No one was reported injured in the incident.
In the early hours of May 14, dela Rosa left the Senate with Sen. Robin Padilla aboard a vehicle registered to Padilla. Remulla said the vehicle was last seen heading toward Makati City. The PNP CIDG previously acknowledged it had tracked the vehicle’s location but declined to provide further details.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government, which has authority over the PNP, had earlier taken the position that the ICC warrant remained unenforceable pending the SC ruling. “The chief PNP is waiting for legal advice from the director of our Legal Service as to the said topic,” Tuaño said.
