The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on Thursday, May 21, declared that with the Supreme Court’s (SC) denial of the temporary restraining order (TRO) sought by Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa against the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant, “there is no basis to stop the implementation of the arrest order.”

In an online statement, the OSG -- the principal law office and legal defender of the government -- said: “A TRO, if issued by the Supreme Court, would have enjoined the implementation of the ICC warrant until further orders.”

It also said it welcomes the SC ruling against Dela Rosa’s injunctive relief.

Last Wednesday, May 20, the SC said that it denied Dela Rosa’s plea for a TRO in a 9-5-1 vote of the 15 members of the High Court.

The names of those who and how they voted will be released by the SC when the resolution is published on Monday, May 25, the SC’s Office of the Spokesperson said.

Dela Rosa’s motion for a TRO was filed as supplement to the petition that he and then president Rodrigo Duterte filed on March 11, 2025 when the former president was arrested on the basis of an ICC warrant coursed through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). On the same day, Duterte was turned over to the ICC in Hague, the Netherlands.

The petition is still pending resolution by the SC. Also pending are the separate petitions filed by Duterte’s children.

Duterte was charged with crime against humanity of murder in connection with the deaths of individuals during his fight against illegal drugs. Duterte’s ICC trial will commence soon, published reports stated.

Dela Rosa, on the other hand, was ordered arrested by the ICC as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in the killings that took place during the campaign against illegal drugs.

The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber had said that then president Duterte and his alleged co-perpetrators, including Dela Rosa, “shared a common plan or agreement to neutralize alleged criminals in the Philippines,” and those linked with drug use and sale through violent crimes, including murder.

In the already unsealed warrant, the Pre-Trial Chamber said that Dela Rosa’s alleged involvement in the so-called “common plan” amounts to a “crime against humanity of murder” committed at least between July 3, 2016 and the end of April 2018 in the Philippines, “during which no less than 32 persons were killed.

When the ICC’s arrest warrant was floated in the media last November, Dela Rosa went into hiding and failed to report to the Senate.

Dela Rosa appeared before the Senate last May 11 to attend the session and voted to oust Sen. Vicente Sotto III as Senate President. Senator Alan Peter Cayetano was elected new Senate president.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) attempted to serve the ICC arrest warrant last May 11 at the Senate. However, the Senate placed Dela Rosa under its protective custody prompting the NBI to back off.

In the early morning of May 14, after some chaotic incidents at the Senate, Dela Rosa left the Senate building and his whereabouts remained unknown since then.

Led by Israelito Torreon, Dela Rosa’s lawyers questioned the legality of the ICC’s arrest order and stressed that they will submit only to the jurisdiction of the Philippine authority.

They told the SC that “any contemplated arrest, detention, custody, transfer, turnover, rendition, or surrender of Petitioner Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ M. Dela Rosa on the basis of any ICC warrant, request, Interpol Red Notice, Diffusion, or analogous foreign or international process shall, at the very least, be subject to prior Philippine judicial authorization and to the procedural safeguards embodied in the 2025 Rules on Extradition Proceedings.”

On the other hand, the OSG said that Section 2, Article II of the Constitution declares that the Philippines adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land and adheres to the policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation, and amity with all nations.

It also said that the ICC’s arrest warrant against Dela Rosa can also be legally enforced under the provisions of Republic Act No. 9851, the law that defines and penalizes crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

It said that under RA 9851, the “enforcement of an ICC warrant of arrest does not require a corresponding warrant of arrest issued by a Philippine court to be enforceable within the Philippine jurisdiction.”

It also said that “Section 17 of RA 9851 authorizes the relevant Philippine authorities to surrender or extradite, as the case may be, a suspected or accused person when an international court or tribunal is already conducting the investigation or prosecution of a crime punishable under the said law.”

In its resolution that denied the issuance of the TRO, the SC said: “The SC only decided on the prayers for interim relief. The main issues raised by the parties in their pleadings and motions are yet to be resolved in the main case.”