Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa (Office of Senator Dela Rosa)
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has not received any copy of arrest warrant or Red Notice in relation to the cases filed against Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This came after former Department of Justice secretary and now Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said that an arrest warrant was already issued against dela Rosa.
In a statement, the DILG said there is no Red Notice from the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) for the former national police chief before the Center for Transnational Crimes, which receives coordination and other requests for law enforcement from other countries.
“As of 11:30 AM today, the Center for Transnational Crimes has not received any red notice against Senator Ronald dela Rosa. At present, there is no actionable document for the Department to respond to,” the DILG statement read.
Dela Rosa was the first Philippine National Police (PNP) chief of former president Rodrigo Duterte and was tagged as the chief implementer of the war on drugs that claimed the lives of thousands of people, including children who died in crossfires.
The bloody drug war led to the filing of crimes against humanity against Duterte and Dela Rosa, as well as some personalities.
In March this year, Duterte was arrested and immediately transported to The Hague in the Netherlands. He is now facing trial.
The arrest of Duterte was carried out by the PNP, with then Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre leading the implementation of the arrest warrant.
On the part of the DILG which has supervision and control over the PNP, it said it is focused on disaster response.
“The DILG is currently focused on ongoing recovery operations in Cebu and on preemptive measures in preparation for the impact of Typhoon Uwan,” it said.