Palace to Bato: Surrender to avoid bloodshed

After skipping sessions for seven months, Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa attends a plenary session at the Senate of the Philippines in Manila on May 11, 2026.

AFP

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has urged fugitive Sen. Bato dela Rosa to give himself up to avert possible bloodshed, a day after Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla warned that arresting him by force could leave as many as 10,000 people dead.

"Sumuko ka na kasi para wala nang dugong dadanak (Surrender now, so that no blood will be spilled)," Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said at a press briefing Wednesday, October 11.

Castro also warned those allegedly sheltering the senator, to "not serve as instruments of people whose cases should be heard, or who should be held accountable under the law," she said in Filipino. 

"Do not serve as a bridge for the escape of those who must answer to the people they allegedly victimized," she said.

Speaking on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 20th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime, Remulla confirmed the government is negotiating for Dela Rosa's surrender and said a forced arrest could cause up to 10,000 deaths. This is a toll he said could surpass that of the 2017 Marawi siege, which killed 168 soldiers and police officers and more than 900 militants.

"We do not want a civil war to start because of the arrest of one man," Remulla said.

Remulla said Dela Rosa was being shielded by a powerful group in Mindanao with deep financial resources and many armed men, and that authorities were negotiating with the individuals involved for the senator's turnover.  

The DILG chief placed the senator in a remote part of Davao City. He said he received information about the group two months ago but declined to give further details. 

Dela Rosa, who served as police chief from 2016 to 2018, is among those tagged as co-perpetrators in the crimes against humanity case against former President Rodrigo Duterte over the drug war. The ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I issued the warrant against him under seal in November 2025 and unsealed it on May 11.

The senator had stayed in the Senate under contested protective custody for three days before scampering out of the building past midnight on May 14, hours after gunshots were fired by the Senate's Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms.

Remulla this week took responsibility for the escape of the senator and admitted he "dropped the ball" by trusting then-Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano's assurance that he'd remain in the chamber's custody.