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Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star
May 19, 2026 | 12:00am
An Akbayan Youth member installs ‘Wanted: Bato’ posters along Kalayaan Avenue in Quezon City yesterday to demand accountability from Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.
Michael Varcas
MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa cried foul over the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) labeling the lawmaker as a “fugitive” and questioned anew the legality of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.
“Senator Dela Rosa is not a fugitive from justice. That characterization is legally baseless and unfair,” Dela Rosa’s lawyer Israelito Torreon posted on his Facebook account yesterday.
In its 83-page comment to Dela Rosa’s petition before the Supreme Court (SC) to junk the enforcement of the ICC warrant, the OSG branded the lawmaker – who returned to the Senate under supposed “protective custody” and fled in dramatic fashion last week – as a “fugitive from justice” since he intended to evade the law, to the point of pleading for a favorable action from the high tribunal.
It cited Republic Act 9851 as basis for the Philippine government through the executive branch to serve arrest warrants issued by a foreign tribunal like the ICC in compliance with constitutional principles, existing laws and international agreements.
However, Torreon insisted that “there is no Philippine court-issued warrant against him, no local criminal case requiring his arrest and no final judicial directive from any Philippine court ordering his surrender to the ICC.”
“What is being questioned before the Supreme Court is precisely the legality of enforcing an ICC process inside Philippine territory without Philippine judicial authority,” he added.
Torreon also argued that the OSG’s comment against Dela Rosa’s petition before the SC “does not answer the central constitutional issue: what specific Philippine law authorizes the executive to arrest, detain or surrender a Filipino citizen to the ICC on the basis of an ICC warrant, without a warrant issued by a Philippine court and without any domestic surrender proceedings.”
Dela Rosa, who is currently in hiding, has yet to file his reply to the OSG’s comment, which the high court ordered sent within 72 hours from its receipt. — Delon Porcalla
