SC asks Malacañang to comment on Sen. Bato’s petition vs ICC arrest
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 May 2026) — The Supreme Court En Banc has ordered Malacañang on Wednesday to comment on the petition filed by Senator Ronald M. dela Rosa on Monday, seeking to block local authorities from arresting and turning him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.
In a press briefer issued on Wednesday, the Court directed respondents to comment within 72 hours on Dela Rosa’s petition for certiorari and prohibition with prayer for issuance of temporary restraining order (TRO) and/or writ of preliminary prohibitory and mandatory injunction that his counsel, Atty. Israelito Torreon, filed before the SC on May 11 shortly after National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) personnel attempted to arrest him.
The Court likewise ordered Dela Rosa to file his reply within 72 hours from receipt of a copy of the comment.
No pronouncement was issued on the senator’s urgent plea for a TRO, a writ of preliminary injunction, or a status quo ante order (SQAO) to prevent his arrest, detention, and transfer to the ICC without prior judicial authorization.
On May 11, the ICC announced an arrest warrant had been issued against Dela Rosa in connection with his participation in the bloody war on drugs of the previous Duterte administration.
The announcement came just hours after local authorities attempted to serve an ICC warrant on Dela Rosa while he was inside the Senate building. After months of absence from the sessions, Dela Rosa appeared on Monday to vote for leadership change in the Senate.
In a five-page Manifestation filed by Dela Rosa with the SC, he prayed that “any contemplated arrest, detention, custody, transfer, turnover, rendition, or surrender of the petitioner on the basis of any ICC warrant, request, Interpol Red Notice, diffusion or analogous foreign or international process should, at the very least, be subjected to prior judicial authorization and to the procedural safeguards embodied in the 2025 Rules on Extradition Proceedings, by analogy.”
The senator also questioned the involvement of former Senator Antonio Trillanes in any attempt to arrest him, saying that Trillanes is a private citizen “with no law-enforcement authority, no judicial office, and no standing as a process server under Philippine law.”
Trillanes, accompanied by personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), appeared at the Senate to serve the ICC arrest warrant on Dela Rosa.
Dela Rosa also asked the Court to prohibit the NBI, Trillanes, and other officials “in concert with them from entering, remaining, in or returning to the Senate for the purpose of arresting, detaining, restraining, or interfering with Dela Rosa’s legislative functions, from attempting to serve, execute, enforce, or give domestic effect to any purported ICC warrant or foreign tribunal process without a valid Philippine court order; and from performing any further act calculated to deprive him of liberty without due process of law.” (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
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