MANILA (May 19) — Ronald dela Rosa has admitted that newly installed Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano personally urged him to return to the Senate on May 11 for the leadership vote that unseated Tito Sotto — a revelation that further ties the dramatic power shift to the former police chief’s sudden reappearance while facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
Speaking on the television program Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho, Dela Rosa said Cayetano called on him to surface after months out of public view so he could participate in the vote reorganizing Senate leadership.
“Si Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, ang aming majority leader,” Dela Rosa said when asked who contacted him.
The senator suggested that moves to replace Sotto had already been in motion, saying his presence was needed for the numbers.
“That’s my duty, to vote,” Dela Rosa said, insisting his attendance was part of his responsibilities as senator and later as senator-judge in the impeachment proceedings against Sara Duterte.
Dela Rosa resurfaced at the Senate on May 11 after largely disappearing from public sight since November 2025, when then-Justice secretary and now Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla disclosed the existence of an ICC warrant tied to the Duterte administration’s bloody anti-drug campaign.
Hours after arriving at the Senate, Dela Rosa was pursued inside the complex by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation attempting to serve the ICC warrant.
The ICC later confirmed the warrant, accusing Dela Rosa of crimes against humanity as an alleged indirect co-perpetrator in killings linked to the Duterte-era drug war, which he helped implement as former chief of the Philippine National Police.
Dela Rosa acknowledged in the interview that he had been “all over the Philippines” while avoiding public appearances, though he denied leaving the country. In an earlier interview, he admitted he had been “hiding.”
He also revealed that he rode to the Senate in a vehicle arranged by Cayetano.
“Hindi ko alam kung kaninong van ’yon. Basta sabi ni Senator Alan, sumakay ka diyan sa van,” Dela Rosa said.
Cayetano later confirmed that Dela Rosa rode in his vehicle en route to the Senate.
Dela Rosa eventually joined the 13 senators who voted to install Cayetano as Senate president, a move that immediately reshaped Senate leadership and committee assignments. Dela Rosa himself was promptly named chair of the Senate committee on public order.
The controversy deepened after Dela Rosa slipped out of the Senate complex around 2:30 a.m. on May 14. Surveillance reports showed a white police vehicle trailing a black van leaving the compound in the early morning hours, fueling questions about whether state resources were used to assist his departure.
Cayetano maintained that Dela Rosa and Robin Padilla left together legally because no Philippine court had issued a local arrest warrant.
The PNP has since launched an internal investigation into the police vehicle seen accompanying the convoy, adding another layer of scrutiny to the politically explosive episode intertwining Senate power struggles, impeachment politics, and the ICC case hanging over Duterte allies.
