Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa Escapes Senate Amid Gunfire During ICC Arrest Standoff

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, outran security agents inside the Philippine senate building on Monday before fleeing through a fire exit on Wednesday night as gunshots rang out. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

The Guardian reported the sequence of events that began when the senator, who had been in hiding for months after reports of his looming arrest emerged in November, made a surprise appearance at the senate on Monday.

Dela Rosa appeared at the senate on Monday to back a successful bid by another Duterte ally to become senate president. Alan Peter Cayetano became senate president on Monday after Vicente Sotto was ousted from the post.

Alan Peter Cayetano granted Ronald dela Rosa protective custody. The senator spent the first night of the standoff at the office of senator Jinggoy Estrada. Ronald dela Rosa told Super Radyo DZBB that “His room was better, it also has more food,” adding that he did not have much of an appetite.

Inside the senate, Ronald dela Rosa called on his fellow men in uniform to oppose his arrest. He serenaded the media with a military hymn and appealed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr not to hand him over to the ICC, with tears in his eyes. The Guardian reported that the tough-talking former head of the Philippine national police had served as the enforcer of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, during which thousands of people were killed.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte is 81 years old. He was arrested and transferred to the ICC last year and is imprisoned at The Hague facing charges of crimes against humanity. Both Marcos and Dela Rosa deny wrongdoing, according to The Guardian.