Bato presses TRO bid after latest disappearing act
The lawyers of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Thursday filed another manifestation at the Supreme Court to reiterate their urgent request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that will block any attempt by the government to arrest him.
This was hours after Dela Rosa managed to leave the Senate premises—and the chamber’s “protective custody”—in the wake of Wednesday night’s shooting incident inside the building.
Filed by the law firm of Israelito Torreon was a 117-page “Very Urgent Manifestation of Supervening Events with Reiterative Prayer for Issuance of Temporary Restraining Order, Status Quo Ante Order, and/or Injunctive Reliefs.”
The move came after the high tribunal acted on the senator’s two earlier motions and manifestations, which he filed after a warrant for his arrest dated Nov. 6, 2025, and issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) was made public on Monday.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court en banc did not issue the TRO that the senator had sought, and instead directed the respondent government officials to comment on his motions within three days.
On Thursday, the Office of the Solicitor General said it would comply with the order by Saturday night on behalf of the respondents, who include heads of various departments and law enforcement agencies.
‘Right to be protected’
In reiterating his prayer for a TRO, Dela Rosa invoked his “unmistakable right to be protected” following the events that transpired in the Senate on May 11 and May 13.
He was referring to the attempt on Monday by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation to arrest him at the Senate, and Wednesday night’s shooting incident.
“These rights have not been rendered academic by the events… They have been made more urgent by them,” he told the high court.
He also cited part of the Supreme Court resolution on Wednesday, which said that it may take “any interim or urgent measures as prayed for by (Dela Rosa), should it become necessary.”
The factor that made it “necessary,” he said, “has been rendered clear, concrete and urgent by the attempted armed enforcement of an alleged ICC-related process inside the Philippine Senate on May 13, 2026.”
About that ‘drilling’
Malacañang and law enforcement officials, however, denied as early as Wednesday night that there was another attempt to arrest the senator.
Dela Rosa’s latest manifestation also brought up the reported “drilling’’ activity on the first floor of the Senate building that night, calling it a “possible diversionary movement.”
He again stressed that he would not submit himself to the ICC “without clear domestic legal authority and prior judicial protection.”
“Until this court resolves the grave issues pending before it, the Executive (branch) must be restrained from taking any act that will make the court’s judgment too late to matter,” he said.
Crimes against humanity
Legal experts, including law school deans and human rights lawyers, have pointed out that an ICC warrant need not go through a local court since there is already a Philippine law dealing with crimes against humanity.
Citing Republic Act No. 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity, they said law enforcement officers may implement the warrant on Dela Rosa since he’s not a subject of an investigation or prosecution by domestic courts and entities for the same charge.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) affirmed this position on Wednesday.
“We may surrender a suspected or arrested person in the Philippines to the appropriate international court or tribunal,” DOJ spokesperson Polo Martinez said.
