Dela Rosa admits Cayetano urged him to appear for coup

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MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa admitted that Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano was the one who urged him to appear on May 11 after months of absence.

Suggesting that a coup to unseat then-Senate President Tito Sotto was already being planned, Dela Rosa said on "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" that his colleagues asked him to come out for a vote on the new Senate leadership.

Asked who specifically called him, Dela Rosa said on the show taped May 13: "Si Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, ang aming majority leader." (Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, our majority leader.)

"That's my duty, to vote. So they cannot question me for being here, and to sit as senator-judge, because it is my duty as a senator," Dela Rosa.

Dela Rosa appeared at the Senate on May 11 after six months away from public view. He was later chased through the Senate building by National Bureau of Investigation agents seeking to serve an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him.

He had been absent since November 2025, after Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, then justice secretary, revealed the existence of the ICC warrant.

"I was all over the Philippines, but I never went out of Philppine jurisdiction because I am a Filipino," Dela Rosa said, when asked if he was in Davao, his hometown. In a separate interview, Dela Rosa had admitted he was "hiding." 

Vote for Cayetano

Dela Rosa was among the 13 senators who voted to install Cayetano as Senate president, eventually ousting Sotto.

He was also immediately named chair of the Senate committee on public order.

The ICC confirmed the existence of the arrest warrant later that same day. Dela Rosa is accused of being an indirect co-perpetrator in crimes against humanity of murder over the Duterte administration's anti-drug campaign, which he helped implement as Philippine National Police chief.

Dela Rosa said in the TV interview that he did not know whose van he rode when he arrived at the Senate.

"Hindi ko alam kung kaninong van 'yon. Basta sabi ni Senator Alan, sumakay ka diyan sa van," he said. (I don't know whose van that was. Senator Alan just told me to ride in the van.)

On May 13, Cayetano admitted that Dela Rosa rode in his vehicle on the way to the Senate.

Escape under review

Dela Rosa later left the Senate at around 2:30 a.m. on May 14.

Reports showed a white police vehicle and a black van leaving the Senate parking lot between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., although there has been no confirmation on who was inside the black van.

Cayetano said on May 14 that Dela Rosa and Sen. Robin Padilla left the Senate together, but insisted the departure was not unlawful because there was no Philippine court warrant against Dela Rosa.

The Philippine National Police has since opened an internal investigation into the white police vehicle seen behind the black van.