By Nestor Corrales and Mikhail Flores
MANILA, May 21 (Reuters) – The Philippine justice minister on Thursday ordered law enforcement to apprehend a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court and said authorities had leads on his whereabouts, a day after a court denied his bid to prevent his arrest.
Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former police chief and lead enforcer of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs, would be tracked down and anyone helping him evade arrest would “face consequences”, Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida said.
“Senator Bato is a fugitive from justice,” he told a press conference.
Vida did not elaborate on leads authorities had on the location of dela Rosa, who is wanted for alleged crimes against humanity. The senator’s lawyers said this week he was in the Philippines.
“We are pursuing this so that the ends of justice may be achieved,” Vida added.
Dela Rosa made a dramatic return last week from six months of hiding and took refuge at the Senate for days before slipping away in the early hours of May 14, after a night of chaos and gunfire followed his appeal for help and claim that his arrest was imminent.
THOUSANDS SLAIN IN ‘WAR ON DRUGS’
Dela Rosa denies incitement or involvement in any illegal killings during the “war on drugs” of Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency, when thousands of users and alleged dealers were killed either in police operations or mysterious slumland shootings.
Duterte, 81, is currently in detention in The Hague after his arrest last year and will go on trial charged with crimes against humanity. He maintains his innocence.
Vida insisted the ICC’s warrant for dela Rosa’s arrest, dated November and unsealed early last week, was enforceable despite the senator challenging its legality on the basis of the Philippines’ 2019 withdrawal from the court’s founding treaty.
The tough-talking dela Rosa, a loyalist of the former president’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, maintained his high profile in the Philippines by running for the Senate after leaving the police, where he still has allies.
Philippine National Police chief Jose Melencio Nartatez on Thursday said the PNP took note of the justice ministry’s directive and would perform its mandate under the law, but stopped short of saying it would arrest dela Rosa.
“The PNP likewise assures the public that all actions undertaken shall remain impartial, professional, and within the bounds of the law, with full respect for the constitutional rights of all parties concerned,” Nartatez said in a statement.
(Reporting by Mikhail Flores and Nestor Corrales; Editing by Martin Petty)
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