Gunshots fired in Philippine Senate, where senator wanted by ICC is resisting arrest
Senate security personnel and police officers ask members of the media to stay back after gunshots were heard at the Philippine Senate
(CNN) — Gunshots were fired Wednesday evening inside the Philippine Senate building, where a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court has been holed up to resist arrest.
No casualties have been reported, and many details of the shooting remain murky.
Unidentified armed men tried to enter the second floor of the Senate but were stopped by a member of the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, who fired the initial shot as a warning, the country’s interior secretary said on Wednesday night. The armed men responded by retreating and firing shots in the air, he added.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. insisted that federal government personnel were not involved in the incident. Marcos said no government forces attempted to enter the Senate to arrest Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, a longtime ally of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Dela Rosa evaded arrest by local investigative unit officers earlier this week.
Security cameras recorded Dela Rosa running through the halls of the Senate on Monday to evade local agents. A series of security lockdowns inside the building followed as riot police surrounded the Senate compound.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) accuse Dela Rosa of conspiring with Duterte in alleged crimes against humanity during a brutal anti-drug campaign that killed thousands. On Monday, the ICC confirmed it had issued an arrest warrant for him, citing incidents in which 32 people were killed between 2016 to 2018.
Dela Rosa, 64, has not left the Senate compound since Monday and is seeking a temporary restraining order from the Philippine Supreme Court against the ICC warrant.
Philippine Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla entered the Senate building on Wednesday night, as Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano — also considered an ally of Duterte — allowed him inside following the gunshots.
Remulla has assured Dela Rosa that he will not be served with an arrest warrant. The interior secretary also said that Dela Rosa will remain in the building as authorities do a security sweep.
Remulla told local media earlier that all senators inside the building are safe.
Video published by Philippine news outlet Rappler shows the moment gunshots echoed through the halls, which happened as reporters were filming soldiers, police and Senate security operations ahead of an impending lockdown. The source of the gunfire is unclear in the video, and journalists are seen running after multiple shots were fired.
Police later ordered all reporters and other personnel to leave, local journalists told CNN. Senate security staff have closed the building’s steel door to lock themselves inside after reporters moved outside.
“I don’t know what is happening. I do not know if I can keep my people safe here,” Cayetano said in a Facebook livestream from inside the Senate complex in the immediate aftermath of the gunshots. “I’m willing to face anyone who is going to serve the warrant … but do not do this.”
In a later video livestream, Cayetano said that “so far everyone is safe,” including Dela Rosa. He added that Senate authorities would allow people to leave “when we’re sure they are not suspects.”
Dela Rosa holed up since Monday
Prior to the shooting incident, Dela Rosa had holed up in the Senate building for two nights, pleading in a live-streamed press conference on Facebook not to be sent to The Hague in the Netherlands to face charges.
He reiterated his position that the ICC has no jurisdiction to arrest him without approval from the Supreme Court. Appearing teary-eyed when asked about the possibility of being arrested, the lawmaker said it was “the lowest point of my life.”
“I will face it, as long as they follow the proper process. If there is a legitimate warrant of arrest, they should bring it before the local court. Let’s discuss it, and we will face it,” he said Tuesday.
Such circumvention of due process is part of the accusations against Duterte and Dela Rosa.
Marcos said he did not instruct the Philippine National Police or the National Bureau of Investigation to serve the arrest warrant for Dela Rosa on Wednesday night, as the Supreme Court process is underway.
War on drugs
Dela Rosa — who goes by the nickname “Bato,” which translates as “Rock” — hails from the Davao region in the southern Philippines and has long been a loyal sidekick of Duterte. The former police officer rose to fame thanks to his close relationship with the strongman leader, who ruled the Philippines with an iron fist from 2016 to 2022, a period marked by his brutal war on drugs.
Dela Rosa served as police chief when Duterte was mayor of Davao City, where police would allegedly coerce low-level dealers to surrender, then summarily execute them. The tactic was part of a strategy known as “Oplan Tokhang.”
For more than two decades, the anti-drug operation was enacted across Davao. Extrajudicial killings spread across the country when Duterte became president and Dela Rosa ascended the upper echelons of the national police force, according to Human Rights Watch.
The ICC arrest warrant alleges that Dela Rosa used his position as national police chief to implement “tokhang”-style killings nationally during Duterte’s presidency. Dela Rosa has repeatedly denied the allegations.
In an interview with CNN in 2016, Dela Rosa said police officers kill suspected drug dealers “if it endangers our lives.”
More than 6,000 people were killed in anti-drug operations after Duterte took office, according to police data. Many of the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders happened in the poorest areas of the country, and independent monitors believe the number of those killed could be much higher.
Duterte himself was dramatically arrested at Manila’s international airport in March 2025 and was put on a plane to The Hague, where he remains in ICC custody. A start date for his trial has not yet been set.
Duterte has long denied the accusations of human rights abuses and contends that drug issues should be settled by domestic law enforcement. He has repeatedly said he will not kowtow to the foreign jurisdiction of the ICC.
The Philippines was a signatory to the ICC, but Duterte canceled its membership after the court began probing his drug war. However, under the ICC’s withdrawal mechanism, the court keeps jurisdiction over crimes committed during the membership — in this case, between 2016 and 2019, when the Philippines’ pullout became official.
As speculation swirled for months that an ICC warrant was on the way, Dela Rosa had not appeared in public.
But he reappeared publicly on Monday in the Senate building, seemingly to participate in the latest episode in a long-running saga between Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte.
Two things happened on Monday. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach the vice president on a range of accusations that include misusing public funds, accumulating unexplained wealth and plotting to assassinate the president. She now awaits trial in the Senate; if convicted, she would be immediately removed from office and disqualified from running for president as planned in 2028.
To aid the Duterte clan’s political survival, Dela Rosa and other senators voted to oust the chamber’s president, installing Duterte ally Cayetano to lead the Senate.
Not long after the vote, Dela Rosa was placed under “protective custody,” according to government-run Philippine News Agency, effectively shielding him from the threat of arrest.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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