Senator Ronald dela Rosa inside the Senate on May 11, 2026. Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered police to arrest Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa quickly but without bloodshed, Malacañang said on Saturday, October 24, 2026, a day after the government put a P50 million bounty on the fugitive senator and gave him one week to surrender. Dela Rosa’s lawyer says the bounty has no legal basis because no Philippine court has issued a warrant against him, and the Senate minority is urging a peaceful way out.
The former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief has been in hiding since May, when authorities moved to enforce an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the Duterte administration’s drug war. He has not been convicted of anything, and the accusations against him remain allegations.
What exactly did Marcos order?
Palace press officer Claire Castro said the President wants the law enforced without delay, but without anyone getting killed. “No one must die in the arrest of Senator Bato but they should not resist because our police force will not back down,” Castro said, The Philippine Star reported (October 25, 2026).
Her statement came after the Senate minority bloc appealed to Marcos to work with the senator’s lawyer toward a peaceful resolution.
Why is there a P50 million bounty on Bato?
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla announced the reward at a press briefing on Friday, October 23, and declared Dela Rosa “armed and dangerous.” He said the money would come from the intelligence funds of the PNP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and that a task force led by Lt. Gen. Wilson Lopez had been formed to find the senator, ABS-CBN News reported (October 23, 2026).
“It’s time for the gloves to come off,” Remulla said, according to GMA News (October 23, 2026). Two days earlier, he had said the senator was being protected by a group in Mindanao.
PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. gave Dela Rosa one week to surrender and warned that anyone found sheltering him could face criminal charges.
What does Bato’s camp say?
His lawyer, Israelito Torreon, argues that the manhunt rests on shaky legal ground. In a post quoted by GMA News, his law firm said the only document the government holds is an ICC warrant from “a foreign tribunal under a treaty the Philippines withdrew from effective March 17, 2019,” and that no Philippine judge has examined or adopted it.
Torreon also said a reward offered without a local court warrant does not help law enforcement but “invites people to take the law into their own hands,” and accused Remulla of putting his client’s life at risk, The Philippine Star reported. Remulla replied that Interpol had issued a red notice for Dela Rosa, a request to police worldwide to locate and hold a wanted person, and that “it is best he surrender.”
The 10-member Senate minority, led by Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, defended the senator’s right to answer the charges before a Philippine court rather than the ICC. “We believe a peaceful resolution that respects our laws and protects lives remains possible,” the bloc said. For background on how the minority took shape, see our report on the Senate shake-up that cut the minority to 10.
Why does the ICC want Dela Rosa?
The ICC unsealed its warrant for Dela Rosa on May 11, 2026, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe he was responsible for the crime against humanity of murder in connection with the anti-drug campaign, ABS-CBN reported. The court treats him as an alleged co-perpetrator in the case against former President Rodrigo Duterte, whose trial in The Hague is set for November 30.
Duterte’s allies have long argued that the ICC lost jurisdiction when the Philippines left the Rome Statute. Our explainer on the ICC, jurisdiction and what happens next walks through both sides, and the Duterte ICC case timeline tracks every step since the former president’s arrest. Prosecutors recently dropped one killing from the Duterte case after a ruling by the judges.
What happens next?
The one-week deadline set by the PNP runs to about October 30. If Dela Rosa surrenders or is caught, the key question will be whether he is turned over to The Hague, as happened to Duterte in March 2025, or whether the courts first take up his camp’s argument that he should face any charges at home.
The manhunt is unfolding while the Duterte family is also fighting on another front, with Vice President Sara Duterte’s Senate impeachment trial still running. Follow that case in our Sara Duterte impeachment trial hub.
FAQ
How much is the reward for Bato dela Rosa’s arrest?
P50 million, announced by Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on October 23, 2026, and drawn from PNP and DILG intelligence funds.
Is there a Philippine warrant for Bato’s arrest?
No Philippine court warrant has been reported. The government is acting on the ICC warrant unsealed on May 11, 2026, and Remulla says Interpol has issued a red notice. Dela Rosa’s lawyer argues this is not enough to support a bounty.
Sources: The Philippine Star (October 25, 2026), ABS-CBN News (October 23, 2026), GMA News (October 23, 2026). Photo: Senator Ronald dela Rosa inside the Senate of the Philippines on May 11, 2026, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
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