Senator Ronald Dela Rosa declared he is willing to surrender if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant against him.
“If there is a warrant, I’m ready. I’m willing to take care of former President (Rodrigo) Duterte. I think that’s my purpose,” he said on Wednesday.
“I will surrender if there’s an arrest warrant. How can they let me in if there isn’t one? They won’t allow me inside.”
Dela Rosa clarified that he was not hiding and was campaigning in the mountains of Surigao and Agusan when asked about his location. “I’m not hiding. I’m right here,” he said.
The senator said he received information about the ICC warrant late last week, just as he was about to join Duterte in Hong Kong.
“The information I got was that both President Duterte and I now have warrants, so I decided not to go. I needed to handle this. Didn’t I tell you before that if a warrant was issued, I would seek judicial relief from the Supreme Court?” he said.
ICC Assistant to Counsel Kristina Conti confirmed that Dela Rosa and former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde were named in the tribunal’s documents.
Conti revealed that the ICC considers Dela Rosa and Albayalde among the key figures in Duterte’s controversial war on drugs.
Dela Rosa, who served as PNP chief from 2016 to 2018, was a central figure in enforcing Duterte’s anti-drug policies, which human rights groups say resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings.
The senator has consistently rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Philippines, arguing that the country withdrew from the court in 2019.
“If all legal remedies are exhausted and still justice is to no avail, then I don’t want my family to suffer from cops looking for a heartbeat,” he said.
“I am ready to join the old man hoping that they would allow me to take care of him,” Dela Rosa added. Duterte went on his way to The Hague, Netherlands shortly after he was arrested Tuesday.
On March 12, the Supreme Court denied an urgent petition from Duterte and Dela Rosa seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and other officials.
The petition, filed on March 11, aimed to halt actions related to Duterte’s arrest but was dismissed for failing to demonstrate a “clear and unmistakable right” to a TRO.
