Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s chief drug war enforcer has urged the military 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 (ICC) over his role in Duterte’s bloody drug war.
Dela Rosa, better known by his nickname ‘Bato’, is accused along with Duterte and other co-perpetrators.
Speaking to reporters, Dela Rosa 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 the government “should not hand me over to foreigners”.
Outside the Senate, 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 new senate leadership said it would only allow Dela Rosa’s arrest if it was ordered by a Philippine court.
A spokeswoman for President Ferdinand Marcos said the president would “not interfere in the decisions of the Senate”. — AFP
