Ruptly
"The Philippine presidential palace said on Thursday that Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), had left the Senate premises after spending days there to escape arrest, following chaos at the Pasay complex a day earlier. "As of 11:09 am, several sources confirmed that Senator Bato is no longer in the Senate premises. But we are still awaiting official confirmation of the report," Palace press officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a Manila press briefing. No operation had been launched to search for the senator's whereabouts at the time of publication. Castro added that agents of the Senate Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) fired first during the incident, prompting National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) officers to return fire. "They introduced themselves as NBI agents, and when they stated their identity, Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca immediately fired a warning shot. And because of that, the NBI agent was also forced to fire a warning shot," she pointed out. This comes after gunshots rang out late Wednesday, causing chaos at the Senate. Law enforcement was reportedly attempting to detain 64-year-old dela Rosa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court as an 'indirect co-perpetrator' of crimes against humanity and was seen taking shelter inside the complex. Rosa, the police chief during ex-president Rodrigo Duterte's 'war on drugs', earlier called on Filipinos to stop him from being detained by the authorities. He is wanted in connection with the killings of thousands of alleged drug dealers during the crackdown from 2011 to 2019. Duterte himself is currently in detention, set to stand trial at The Hague."
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