Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa reportedly wants to report for work at the Senate but cannot do so due to threats of being arrested and taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, according to Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano.

Cayetano, in an interview with reporters in Taguig City on Tuesday, April 28, said that the Senate Minority Bloc actually wants the beleaguered senator to return to his normal duties in the Upper Chamber but there is lack of assurance that his rights would be protected.

“Everyone (in the minority) wants him to enter (the Senate). Senator Bato wants to enter. He doesn’t want not to enter. The minority wants him to enter. The majority wants him to enter,” Cayetano said in Filipino in an ambush interview with reporters in Taguig on Tuesday.

“What’s the problem? There is a threat against him but that the government has no assurance that his rights will be protected,” he added.

Cayetano reiterated the Senate minority's position that Filipinos facing arrest or extradition in an international court should be allowed to seek legal remedies in local courts.

“In our Constitution, only a judge can issue an arrest warrant. So if there is an arrest warrant from abroad, it should go through our judge. That is our stand. Yet no one can assure Senator Bato,” said Cayetano.

“So I talked to someone very close to him. He said, it's simple sir, the Philippine government can only assure us that he will have his day in court here. Even if he is arrested here, here in the Philippines. But if someone says, they can take him and just send him to another country, he will stand his ground,” he added.

Moreover, Cayetano said the senator is ready to defend his rights if he is arrested and brought to the ICC.

"I think he also wants to attend. He misses his job in the Senate itself. But if the alternative is that, when he steps foot there, he is suddenly arrested, suddenly put on a plane and flown to (the) Hague, he will fight for his rights," the Senate minority leader said.

Earlier, Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges, said Dela Rosa’s camp is “considering” waiving his salary and allowances in response to an ethics complaint against him.

“They’re already considering,” said Ejercito, describing it as a positive development.

Earlier, the Senate ethics panel chairman suggested that Dela Rosa voluntarily waive his monthly wages as a senator so that the ethics complaint against him would be dismissed.

“Because that was the basis of the ethics case against him; if he will decline to accept his salary, and allowances, then that complaint would be junked because it will no longer have any basis,” he stressed.

Dela Rosa has been absent in the Senate’s sessions since November 2025 precisely due to an alleged arrest warrant issued by the ICC, but as of this time, no red notice from the ICC has been issued against him.