RIVERMAN’S VISTA: Manila’s Shame: Mindanao’s Verdict

MindaNews / 14 May 2026 — Mindanao has spoken. It has spoken with unmistakable clarity. No parliamentary maneuver can obscure what was said.

I write as a Mindanawon. I write from this island’s memory and its grief. What happened on May 11 is personal to us.

What Happened in Manila

Let me describe the sequence of May 11. Dela Rosa had been hiding since November 2025. He emerged not to legislate. He emerged not to answer the ICC. He appeared solely to cast one vote: to oust Senate President Tito Sotto.

ICC prosecutors identified Dela Rosa as Duterte’s co-perpetrator. Duterte is now detained at The Hague. He faces trial for crimes against humanity. Thousands were killed without trial during the drug war. Dela Rosa ran that campaign as PNP chief.

Once his vote was cast, the NBI arrived. Agents chased him through the Senate halls. The new leadership then placed him under protective custody. A man wanted for crimes against humanity was shielded by the legislature. This is what our Senate has become.

Religious leaders, legal experts, and victims have united in condemnation. They condemned the Senate’s grant of “protective custody” to Dela Rosa. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported their verdict: the Senate is now a “political bunker.” This constitutes, in their words, “a gross misuse of legislative power.”

What Mindanao’s Voices Are Saying

Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente spoke with moral precision. Quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, he reminded the nation that Dela Rosa’s privilege of a day in court is a stark contrast to thousands summarily executed without defense or due process. “Let us not forget,” he said. “The victims are not just statistics. They are people, parents, children, siblings, and spouses who have grieving families.” He also argued that the Senate’s legally dubious protective custody proves exactly why ICC proceedings are necessary.

Carlos Isagani Zarate, senior partner of La Viña Zarate, a development and social change law firm with an extensive practice in Mindanao, dismantled the legal basis for the Senate’s action. Parliamentary immunity covers only crimes below six years’ imprisonment. Crimes against humanity carry thirty years under the Rome Statute. RA 9851, the Philippine equivalent, prescribes twelve to forty years.

Zarate was unequivocal in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “No government official has immunity from the ICC,” he said. “Not even a president or senator.” He warned further that harboring an ICC suspect violates Presidential Decree 1829 on obstruction of justice. “The Senate’s act of protecting Bato may constitute a criminal act,” he said. Some senators may yet answer for Monday’s events.

Antonio Montalvan, a self-exiled victim of Duterte’s troll operations, described the crisis as “surreal.” Quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, he said: “Instead of oversight, the Senate now oversees Duterte interests. It has morphed from lawmaking to law breaking. The utter shamelessness is unimaginable.”

Why This Is Mindanao’s Story

This is not a Manila spectacle. Dela Rosa is a Mindanawon. He commanded police in Davao. The drug war he ran fell hardest on our communities. The families of the victims lived in our barangays, in Davao, in Cotabato, in Zamboanga. They are still waiting for justice.

Dela Rosa provided the decisive thirteenth vote for Cayetano. The Senate’s first act under new leadership was to protect him. Self-preservation was dressed as parliamentary procedure. The chamber that must try the Vice President now shelters her father’s closest ally. That contradiction cannot hold.

The House gave us reason for hope. With 257 votes, it transmitted the impeachment articles. Crucially, most Mindanao representatives voted yes. They did not vote for alliance or political cover. They voted for accountability, and they voted for us.

This matters deeply for our region’s future. Our representatives heard Mindanao’s long cry for justice. They acted when the moment came. That vote must be remembered and honored. It stands in stark contrast to the Senate’s cowardice.

The Cayetano majority will not last. Alliances built on self-preservation are fragile. The ICC does not pause for Senate politics. Those who harbored Dela Rosa may face legal consequences. Justice moves slowly, but it moves.

Mindanao has rendered its judgment. From our bishops to our lawyers to our victims, this island knows what it sees. It sees a Senate that chose a bunker over a courthouse. It sees impunity protected over the memory of the dead.

We will remember who built the bunker. We will remember why.

[Dean Antonio Gabriel La Viña is a professor of law, philosophy, politics and governance in several universities, including in Mindanao. He has been a human rights lawyer for 36 years. He is managing partner of La Viña Zarate and Associates, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and Chair of the Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy. He is founding president of the Movement Against Disinformation (MAD), and founding chair of the Mindanao Climate Justice Resource Facility and the Mindanao Center for Scholarships, Sports, and Spirituality.]