Philippine President Marcos denies role in Senate gunfire as ICC suspect standoff threats escalate

[MANILA] Gunshots were fired at the Philippine Senate on Wednesday (May 13) evening where a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) has sought refuge. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr called for calm and denied any government involvement in the incident.

“It was not the government that did this,” Marcos said in a statement broadcast on his Facebook account. “There was no instruction to arrest Senator Bato,” he said, referring to Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, whose nickname Bato means rock in Tagalog and who has been holed up in the Senate complex since Monday.

A former police chief, Dela Rosa is wanted by the ICC for his role in alleged crimes related to a violent crackdown on drugs during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte. He denies any wrongdoing but has been on the run for six months. Having led National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents on a high-speed chase on Monday, jogging through the halls and running up and down stairwells in the Senate building, he’s now invoked his right to sanctuary.

Marcos said he told National Bureau of Investigation agents to leave the Senate premises shortly after the Supreme Court granted respondents 72 hours to comment on Dela Rosa’s request for a restraining order against his arrest.

“The thing to do now is to tell our people all to calm down and we will get to the bottom of this,” Marcos said, adding that both the Senate and the police will investigate who was behind the attack and whether destabilisation of the government was a motive.

While the Hague-based ICC issued a warrant for Dela Rosa’s arrest back in November, it was only made public on Monday. The warrant, dated Nov 6, said there are “reasonable grounds to believe Dela Rosa has committed the crime against humanity of murder.”

Duterte himself is awaiting trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity during his war on drugs.

The escalating saga in the Senate comes as a rift between Marcos and his ally-turned rival vice-president Sara Duterte, who is Rodrigo’s daughter, intensifies and as the Philippines’ economy faces headwinds including the impact of higher energy prices from the war in the Middle East.

Dela Rosa emerged from months in hiding on Monday in order to cast a key vote in the upper house helping install Alan Peter Cayetano, a Duterte ally, as Senate president, and potentially stave off a move there to endorse a new impeachment vote that has passed the lower house against the vice-president.

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Tensions heightened in the building late on Wednesday as armed personnel showed up, according to local radio. “This is the Senate of the Philippines. We are allegedly under attack. The sergeant at arms has confirmed there were shots made here,” Senate leader Cayetano said in a video posted on his Facebook account.

Interior and Local government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the government has yet to verify the identities of the perpetrators.

The Philippine National Police raised its nationwide alert status to its highest level on Wednesday evening and deployed about 1,500 personnel to secure the Senate perimeter, according to local media reports.

Cayetano said there will be a thorough investigation over the next few days and that there will be a session on Thursday after the chamber received the impeachment complaint against the vice-president.

On Tuesday before the latest chaos, Dela Rosa said he feels “safer” in the Senate. When he arrived on Monday he was accompanied by staff members, one of whom was carrying a suitcase. “I just don’t know what was in the suitcase. But I assumed they were clothes because that’s where he was staying,” Melvin Matibag, the head of the NBI, said.

Earlier Wednesday, Dela Rosa appealed for “peaceful support” from fellow uniformed men after singing, in front of reporters, the alma mater song of the Philippine Military Academy, where he graduated in 1986. He’s told reporters he’s been visiting the offices of other senators including his friends, ex-actors Robin Padilla and Jinggoy Estrada, quipping there’s “a lot of food” at Estrada’s. BLOOMBERG