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Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa, the chief enforcer of former President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly ‘war on drugs,’ gestures before the start of a plenary session at the Senate in Pasay City, Metro Manila May 12, 2026. — Reuters pic
MANILA, May 15 — Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa called on the public to step in to prevent law enforcement agents from handing him over to the International Criminal Court as the sound of gunfire rattled through the Senate building on Wednesday evening. Dela Rosa stands accused by the ICC of crimes against humanity related to the war on drugs he oversaw while serving as police chief under then President Rodrigo Duterte. Dela Rosa, 64, has denied involvement in illegal killings.
Duterte, in office from 2016 to 2022, was himself arrested and taken to The Hague in March 2025 on a warrant linking him to murders committed during the bloody campaign, in which thousands of alleged narcotics peddlers and users were killed. He also maintains his innocence.
What was dela Rosa’s role in the war on drugs?
When Rodrigo Duterte assumed the presidency in June 2016, he appointed dela Rosa, his former police chief in Davao City, as head of the Philippine National Police, a post he held for 21 months. Duterte gave him broad authority to replicate Davao’s crime-fighting model nationwide.
“He is leaving everything up to me,” dela Rosa, popularly known as “Bato” or “Rock”, told Reuters at the time.
On his first day as PNP chief, dela Rosa issued a directive launching the nationwide anti-illegal drugs crackdown to fulfil Duterte’s campaign promise.
The programme, called Project Double Barrel, was patterned after Davao City’s policing strategy and aimed at the “neutralisation of illegal drug personalities nationwide”.
Its rollout was followed by a sharp rise in killings. Police reported more than 2,000 deaths between Duterte’s inauguration on June 30 and the end of that year, most described as occurring during shootouts.
Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa, the chief enforcer of former President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly ‘war on drugs,’ reacts before the start of a plenary session at the Senate in Pasay City, Metro Manila May 12, 2026. — Reuters pic
What were dela Rosa’s pronouncements as police chief?
Dela Rosa repeatedly used violent rhetoric while leading the Philippine National Police during the drug war.
Some of these statements were later cited in a court document filed with the International Criminal Court outlining the charges prosecutors want to bring to former President Duterte.
Dela Rosa publicly vowed to “crush” drug lords and warned of “killings in the name of drugs”.
He promised to “immediately” implement a scaled-up version of the Davao model, declaring: “If someone fights back, they’ll die. If nobody fights back, we’ll make them fight back. Produce blood. Instil fear.”
A month after his appointment, in a speech to self-confessed drug addicts, dela Rosa told the crowd to kill drug lords and burn their houses for causing them to become addicted to shabu, a slang term for methamphetamine.
Drugs war death toll
By the time Duterte left office in 2022, the drug war’s official toll had at least tripled. Police said 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations.
The Philippine government has officially acknowledged 6,248 deaths due to the anti-drug campaign.
But activists say the real toll of the crackdown was far greater, with thousands of urban and poor drug users, many placed on official “watch lists”, killed in mysterious circumstances.
Both Duterte and dela Rosa were unapologetic in their defence of the brutal campaign, insisting police were only told to kill in self-defence.
Philippine Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, the chief enforcer of former president Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, attends a session at the Senate, which holds him under protective custody amid an International Criminal Court warrant, in Pasay City, Metro Manila May 12, 2026. — Reuters pic
Dela Rosa’s political career
After leaving the police force, dela Rosa was appointed director general of the Bureau of Corrections, before joining the senatorial race in the 2019 national elections. He won and placed fifth in the polls, garnering more than 19 million votes.
He ran and won a second senatorial term in May 2025.
Dela Rosa was seen attending a Senate session on Monday for the first time since disappearing from public view in November as he cast a decisive vote in a Senate leadership shakeup that will play a role in an impending impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of Rodrigo Duterte. — Reuters
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