The DOJ has confirmed a formal application for an Interpol red notice against Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa — escalating his ICC fugitive status from a domestic standoff into an international manhunt.
A red notice, per Interpol, is “a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.” Every member country of the 195-nation police organization becomes a potential arrest point the moment it is issued.
DOJ spokesman Polo Martinez confirmed the application on May 21. “As far as I know, there is an application for an Interpol red notice,” Martinez said. “That is a remedy available to us.”
Dela Rosa has been in hiding since the early hours of May 14, when CCTV footage captured him leaving the Senate parking lot at 2:30 a.m. aboard a white Toyota van registered to Sen. Robin Padilla — hours after a shooting incident rocked the Senate premises. Padilla has since confirmed he gave Dela Rosa a ride to Makati, dropping him off near Ayala Avenue where another vehicle reportedly picked the fugitive senator up.
The NBI has named Padilla a “person of interest” in the escape. Padilla denies wrongdoing.
Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida has formally declared Dela Rosa a fugitive from justice and ordered both the PNP and NBI to execute the ICC arrest warrant, which covers alleged crimes against humanity of murder — specifically, the killings of at least 32 people between July 2016 and April 2018 during the Duterte administration’s drug war. The Supreme Court denied Dela Rosa’s plea for a temporary restraining order on May 20 in a 9-5-1 vote, leaving the ICC warrant fully enforceable.
“If we will see him today, we will arrest him today,” NBI Director Melvin Matibag said at a media briefing. “If we will see him tomorrow or next week, we will arrest him.”
The SC’s full resolution, along with concurring and dissenting opinions, is scheduled for release on Monday, May 25.
