Philippine Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa is now officially included in the list of wanted persons of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the unsealing of his warrant of arrest on May 11, 2026.
The senator, who is currently taking refuge at the privileged halls of the Senate of the Philippines, has been tagged as “at large” by the ICC.
Attorney Israelito Torreon, legal counsel of Dela Rosa, said in a statement that their camp has expected the inclusion of his client in the list, according to a report by ABS-CBN News.
The senator’s arrest warrant was unsealed on Monday, May 11, 2026, involving him as one of the suspects in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
As per the warrant, which was originally issued on November 6, 2025, but in secret, finds Dela Rosa “to have committed the crime against humanity of murder (article 7(1)(a) of the Rome Statute), at least between July 3 2016 and the end of April 2018, during which no less than 32 persons were killed, in the Republic of the Philippines.”
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Bato seeks sanctuary from the Senate
The Philippine senator went into hiding for six months after a rumour of his arrest warrant started circulating but came into the open on Monday to help unseat Senator Tito Sotto from being the senate president, who was eventually replaced by Duterte ally, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano.
On the same day, Dela Rosa was seen in the CCTV running through the Senate halls, even stumbling down the staircase, trying to escape and outrun agents from the National Bureau of Investigation.
Since then, the senator has not left the premises and has been placed under Senate protective custody.
Desperate appeal to Marcos
Dela Rosa also appealed to President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. to not surrender him to the international authorities.
“I appeal to him not to send me to The Hague,” Dela Rosa appealed when asked for a message to the president.
“We don’t know, one day, you might face the same hurdle, Mr. President. You will know, you will feel what I feel right now.”
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