MANILA: Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's chief drug war enforcer urged the military on Wednesday (May 13) to stop government attempts to arrest and fly him to the Netherlands to stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
Ronald Dela Rosa, a sitting senator and former police chief, began his third day holed up at the Senate building after its leadership stopped government efforts to serve an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over his role in Duterte's bloody drug war.
Dela Rosa, better known by his nickname "Bato", is accused of the crime against humanity of murder along with Duterte and other co-perpetrators.
"I am not appealing for violent support. I am appealing for peaceful support," Dela Rosa told reporters.
He urged "my fellow men in uniform" and former classmates at the Philippine Military Academy, which produces most of the armed forces' officer corps, to "express their sentiment" that President Ferdinand Marcos's government "should not hand me over to foreigners".
Outside the Senate on Wednesday, about 500 riot police faced off with some 250 protesters demanding the arrest and handover to the ICC of a person they described as the "architect" of Duterte's drug war.
The crackdown left thousands dead, human rights monitors say, many of them drug users and low-level narcotics peddlers.
Dela Rosa was police chief in 2016-2018, during Duterte's first two years in office.
Duterte was arrested in March last year, flown to the Netherlands on the same day, and is detained in the Hague where he awaits trial.
The senator had not been seen publicly since November before emerging on Monday to take part in an unexpected vote that helped Duterte loyalists capture control of the Senate.
The new senate leadership said it would only allow Dela Rosa's arrest if it was ordered by a Philippine court.
A Marcos spokeswoman said Tuesday the president would "not interfere in the decisions of the Senate".
The Supreme Court has yet to act on a Dela Rosa petition to stop the Manila government from enforcing the ICC arrest warrant. - AFP
