By Noel Celis and Karen Lema
MANILA, May 14 (Reuters) - The Philippines president called an emergency meeting of top officials on Thursday amid widening political tensions, a day after gunfire rang out at the Senate where a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court has been holed up fearing his arrest.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa, the former national police chief and chief enforcer of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs”, is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of.
Duterte is set to become the first former Asian head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
Gunshots were heard late on Wednesday inside the Senate building and people inside scrambled for cover, hours after dela Rosa, better known as “Bato” or “Rock”, appealed on social media for supporters to mobilise, saying law enforcement agents were coming to take him from the legislature, where he had taken refuge.
The incident sparked chaos and confusion, with a heavy presence of police and armed guards at the Senate, protests outside and more than a dozen shots fired just moments after marines were called in to bolster security.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr was meeting government and security chiefs on Thursday, while police spokesperson Randulf Tuano said one person had been detained and investigations were underway, with bullet casings, assault rifle magazines and other items recovered.
“The person has provided names, but these still need confirmation,” Tuano told DZBB radio.
DELA ROSA WHEREABOUTS UNCLEAR
It was unclear who fired the shots, or if dela Rosa was still in the Senate on Thursday. Entering the heavily guarded building, his lawyer Jimmy Bondoc, said he spoke to him during the night and believed he was inside.
“As his lawyer, I asked him if you have plans to leave, he said none,” Bondoc told reporters.
Marcos and government agencies have insisted no order was issued to arrest dela Rosa, with no announcements on Thursday on the identity of individuals who officials said tried to force their way into the building.
In an interview with DZBB aired early on Thursday, dela Rosa said he will “exhaust all available remedies” to block his transfer to the ICC and having learned about conditions Duterte was being held under, he was no longer willing to fight his case in The Hague.
It was unclear when the interview was conducted. Dela Rosa has denied involvement in illegal killings.
“Yes, things changed. It turns out it is not that easy to visit him,” he said of Duterte. “If we were co-detainees there’s no assurance we would be placed in the same cell or even in the same facility.”
Marcos vowed late on Wednesday to get to the bottom of the incident, as political tensions mounted over dela Rosa and Monday’s impeachment of the former president’s daughter Vice President Sara Duterte.
‘EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION’
Sara Duterte, who is in The Hague visiting her father, was the running mate of Marcos, but their alliance broke down and she is now fighting for her political survival, facing an impeachment trial in the Senate that could derail her run for the next presidency in 2028.
“What we are seeing now is the administration using all government resources to demolish political opposition or individuals who do not follow, agree with, or support (Marcos),” she said in comments shared by her office.
She said she had not spoken with dela Rosa since before the gunfire incident and said he was about to be the subject of extraordinary rendition, likening it to what she called her father’s illegal abduction and transfer to the ICC last year.
“That is how the world saw it then. And that is also what they are trying to do now to Senator Bato dela Rosa,” she said.
The Hague-based court unsealed an arrest warrant on Monday for dela Rosa, dated November, and he has filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to block any transfer to the ICC, arguing it no longer has jurisdiction in the Philippines after the country withdrew from the court in 2018.
The court says it can investigate crimes committed prior to a country’s withdrawal.
Dela Rosa was Duterte’s top lieutenant, overseeing a fierce crackdown during which thousands of alleged drug dealers were slain, with rights groups accusing police of systematic murders and cover-ups.
Police reject that and say the more than 6,000 killed in Project Double Barrel were all armed and had resisted arrest.
Activists say the real death toll may never be known, with users and small-time peddlers gunned down daily in mysterious slumland killings that police blamed on vigilantes and turf wars.
(Reporting by Noel Celis and Karen Lema; Additional reporting by Lorenzo Lesaba; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
