Any appearance by Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa at the Senate during Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment proceedings would trigger his immediate arrest, the Philippine National Police declared Sunday.
The senator has been the subject of an International Criminal Court warrant tied to the Duterte administration’s anti-narcotics campaign, in which he served as national police chief. That warrant, according to police, leaves them no discretion once he is within reach.
“We are mandated to arrest Senator Dela Rosa. If he appears there, police will arrest him,” PNP spokesman Col. Allen Rae Co told reporters at Camp Crame.
Co said the force has drawn up a full security blueprint for the trial in partnership with the Senate and other agencies, though he added that the exact headcount of officers to be deployed had not yet been settled. The plan, he explained, is meant to keep the proceedings orderly and peaceful.
On the question of possible disruptions, Co said no threats had surfaced in the PNP’s monitoring, but he stressed that officers remain on elevated alert. “We will verify any report that reaches us and act accordingly,” he said.
Dela Rosa had dropped out of public view for roughly half a year before reappearing at the chamber on May 11, when he took part in the move to hand the Senate presidency to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. He again went into hiding on May 14, in the wake of the shooting incident at the Senate.
The senator is listed among those the ICC identifies as co-perpetrators in the crimes-against-humanity case built around former president Rodrigo Duterte and the drug-war deaths.
