Philippine Senator Says He Will Fight ICC Arrest Warrant

A Philippine senator wanted by the International Criminal Court said Tuesday he will fight any attempt to send him to the global tribunal for prosecution. He added that he never condoned extrajudicial killings when he led the country's police force.

The ICC in The Hague unsealed an arrest warrant Monday for the senator, a former national police chief. The warrant charges him with the crime against humanity of murder of no less than 32 persons allegedly committed between July 2016 and the end of April 2018 in the Philippines.

The warrant was originally issued in November. "If I have something to answer for, I will face those in our local courts and not before foreigners," the senator told reporters in the Senate. The Senate took him into protective custody Monday when he reappeared after months of absence.

He pleaded to the president not to send him to The Hague. "I will avail of all legal processes," he said. After winning the presidency in 2016, former President Rodrigo Duterte designated the senator as head of the national police force. The force enforced the anti-drug campaign that left thousands of mostly petty suspects dead.

The senator had also once headed the police force in the southern city of Davao. "My role was to lead the war on drugs, and that war on drugs was not meant to annihilate people," the senator said when asked about the death toll. "When the lives of police officers came under threat, of course they needed to defend themselves," he added.

Duterte's six-year term ended in mid-2022. He was arrested in March 2025 and is detained by the ICC in the Netherlands awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity connected to the crackdown. Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019.

The court has said it retained jurisdiction over crimes committed while the country was still a member. Asked whether the Philippines will enforce the ICC arrest warrant, officials said they were ready and could surrender the senator to the court's jurisdiction under a Philippine law enacted to address crimes against humanity.

"We have an obligation that all those who should be held to account should be held responsible," a communications undersecretary said in a news briefing. The senator cannot invoke immunity from arrest while attending Senate sessions because the alleged crimes are serious and punishable by a long prison term, the undersecretary added.

Police deployed nearly 350 officers outside the Senate. Officials said the deployment was to keep order.

Background on the Anti-Drug Campaign The anti-drug crackdown began after Duterte took office in 2016. It resulted in thousands of deaths, many of them petty drug suspects. Human rights groups have long criticized the campaign for extrajudicial killings.

The ICC's decision to pursue cases from that period follows its assertion of jurisdiction despite the country's withdrawal from the court in 2019. The Philippines enacted domestic legislation that officials say allows cooperation with the ICC on such matters.