Gunshots at Philippine Senate as 'Bato', ex-top-cop-turned-lawmaker wanted by ICC, holds out

Manila: Multiple gunshots sent Philippine senators into hiding in their offices late Wednesday, AFP journalists said, as a legislator wanted by the International Criminal Court has sought refuge in the building and armed military men were seen in the Senate building.

There were no casualties and the search for the gunmen was ongoing, Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla told reporters, adding that fugitive Senator Ronald Dela Rosa remained inside the building.

AFP journalists in the Senate said they heard at least five gunshots.

Social media posts were rife with speculation that the gunshots were used as a "cover" to facilitate the escape of Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa from arresting officers.

A TV journalist was seen crying as she reported live from inside the building, while one senator, Robin Padilla, urged reporters to evacuate.

Night-time drama in the Senate

The dramatic scene unfolded as Dela Rosa — former president Rodrigo Duterte's top cop during his bloody drug war — holed up in the Senate complex to dodge arrest and transfer to the Netherlands over alleged crimes against humanity.

Remulla said Dela Rosa "is safe. He is with security personnel. He has been informed of our activities. We have assured him that there is no warrant of arrest to be served."

President Ferdinand Marcos said government forces inside and around the Senate complex did not fire their guns.

'Stand down' order

He said agents trying to arrest Dela Rosa had been instructed to stand down after the Supreme Court ordered the government earlier on Wednesday to explain its actions.

"The thing to do now is to tell all our people to calm down and we will get to the bottom of this. We will determine who is behind this trouble," Marcos said in an address on state television.

Dela Rosa had earlier asked the Supreme Court to stop the authorities from arresting and handing him over to the ICC. His lawyer, Jimmy Bondoc, said dela Rosa remains within the Senate premises.

Dela Rosa, known as "Bato", served as national police chief from 2016 to 2018 during the early phase of Duterte's anti-drug campaign.

The crackdown left thousands dead, many of them drug users and low-level narcotics peddlers, according to human rights monitors.

His boss Duterte was arrested in March last year, flown to the Netherlands on the same day, and is detained in The Hague awaiting trial.

'Under attack'

Dela Rosa had not been seen publicly since November before emerging on Monday to take part in an unexpected vote that helped Duterte loyalists capture control of the Senate. 

Minutes before the gunfire, Senator Vicente Sotto said in a statement that protesters threw water bottles at his car as he drove alone out of the Senate complex.

Earlier Wednesday, Dela Rosa had appealed to the military to oppose attempts to detain him, urging former colleagues to resist any move by President Marcos's government to hand him over to the ICC.

"My fellow men in uniform" should "express their sentiment" that the government "should not hand me over to foreigners", he said.

Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, who had stopped government agents from arresting his ally, said on his official Facebook page he did not know who had fired the shots.

"We heard gunshots and we don't know what is happening. Everyone's locked in their rooms now. We cannot go out, we cannot secure our other staff," he added.

"Why are we under attack here?"

Melvin Matibag, director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) whose agents had attempted to arrest Dela Rosa at the Senate on Monday, denied that his officers had fired their guns.

"We were on a stand down," he told ABS-CBN network in an interview, adding there were no NBI agents inside the Senate when the shooting occurred.