The Manila Times
MANILA, Philippines — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has expressed concern over the Philippine Senate's move to protect Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa. The APHR on Thursday urged the Philippine government to cease obstructing the International Criminal Court (ICC) from arresting Dela Rosa for alleged crimes against humanity. It noted that the ICC on May 11 unsealed an arrest warrant against Dela Rosa for alleged crimes against humanity of murder in connection with the Duterte administration’s bloody “war on drugs,” covering at least 32 documented killings between July 2016 and April 2018. The APHR said that the declaration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that no state forces were ordered to arrest Dela Rosa was "itself a troubling signal." The Philippines "remains bound by its domestic laws, which the Department of Justice has itself confirmed allow for surrender to the ICC," the APHR said. “What is unfolding in the Philippine Senate is an outright display of impunity," said Mercy Chriesty Barends, member of the Indonesian House of Representatives and APHR chairman. "This is the same culture of impunity that allowed former President Rodrigo Duterte to unleash widespread killings against the poor under the guise of a war on drugs," she said. The Philippine government must stop shielding Dela Rosa and fulfill its obligations under international law. "He must be surrendered to the ICC,” Barends added. The APHR urged the Philippine government to cooperate with the ICC in the enforcement of the arrest warrant against Dela Rosa. “The drug war claimed thousands of lives, the vast majority of them poor, urban Filipinos who were killed without due process, and whose families have waited nearly a decade for accountability,” said Charles Santiago, former member of Parliament in Malaysian Parliament and APHR co-chairman. He said the integrity of international human rights mechanisms depends on whether leaders choose the rule of law over impunity. "That the Philippines holds the 2026 Asean chairship makes this moment all the more consequential." "Manila’s response will signal to the region what kind of leadership it intends to provide,” said Santiago added. The APHR noted that "a coordinated leadership coup in the Senate installed Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate President, who immediately declared Dela Rosa under the Senate’s protection." "National law enforcement agencies have hedged and deferred. And on the night of May 13, gunshots from unidentified sources rang out inside the Senate building as tensions over the attempted arrest escalated," it added.
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