MANILA — Philippine police have said they detained a man in connection with the gunfire on Wednesday night inside the Philippine senate, where a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court took refuge.
Meanwhile, Philippine authorities were seeking confirmation on Thursday of reports that Senator Ronald Bato Dela Rosa, one-time enforcer of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug crackdown on drugs, had slipped away overnight.
“Several sources confirmed that Senator Bato is no longer in the Senate premises. But we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro told a press conference.
Gunshots were heard late on Wednesday inside the Senate and people there scrambled for cover, hours after Dela Rosa, 64, appealed on social media for supporters to mobilize, saying law enforcement agents were coming to arrest him.
The incident sparked chaos, with a heavy presence of police and armed guards at the Senate, protests outside and more than a dozen shots fired just moments after marines were called in to bolster security.
The shooting did not result in any casualties and sheltered at the legislature.
It was not immediately clear how many suspects were involved in the shooting, with Philippine authorities saying investigation was ongoing.
“He (suspect) was arrested at the area of the incident, at the second floor of the senate building,” Philippine police spokesman Brigadier-General Randulf Tuano told reporters.
Police seized live ammunition from the man, who was being tested for gunshot residue.
Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla had said senate security fired “warning shots” at several unknown armed men who had gone up the senate stairway.
The gunmen later fired into the air and left, he added, while senators, including the fugitive Dela Rosa, barricaded themselves inside their offices.
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.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr met security chiefs on Thursday as investigations are underway to identify individuals who tried to enter the Senate.
“The person has provided names, but these still need confirmation,” police spokesperson Randulf Tuano told DZBB radio.
The Hague-based court unsealed a warrant on Monday for Dela Rosa’s arrest while he has filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court, arguing the ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines after its 2019 withdrawal from the international institution.
Earlier on Thursday, while entering the heavily guarded Senate, Dela Rosa’s lawyer Jimmy Bondoc said he spoke to him during the night and believed he was inside.
“I asked him if you have plans to leave, he said none,” Bondoc told reporters.
The tough-talking Dela Rosa enjoyed celebrity status as Duterte’s top lieutenant, overseeing a fierce crackdown during which thousands of alleged drug dealers were slain, with rights groups accusing police of systematic murders and cover-ups.
Police reject that and say the more than 6,000 killed in Project Double Barrel were all armed and had resisted arrest.
Activists say the real death toll may never be known, with users and peddlers gunned down daily in mysterious slumland killings that police blamed on vigilantes and turf wars.
Source: Saudi Gazette