Hunt for Bato dela Rosa sets 1-week ultimatum, P50-M bounty

MANILA, Philippines — The government on Friday placed a P50-million bounty on the head of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa as the Philippine National Police gave its former chief one week to surrender to face trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC) alongside ex-President Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity in their war on drugs.

Dela Rosa’s lawyers immediately questioned the legality of the reward, the biggest offered for a fugitive in the Philippines in recent years, arguing that he was not facing any charges in any Philippine court to justify the bounty.

“A reward system built on Philippine warrants cannot be used for a person who has no Philippine warrant,” the Law Firm of Torreon and Partners said in a statement on Friday.

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READ: Remulla: Negotiations underway with Bato dela Rosa’s ‘protectors’

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Months in hiding

The lawyers warned that the reward offered for Dela Rosa would raise the risk of a “vigilante action” against the senator.

“As of today, Sen. Bato will be considered armed and dangerous. We are placing a bounty of P50 million for his capture,” Remulla told reporters at a press briefing in Camp Crame on Friday.

READ: PNP: Hunt for Dela Rosa still on despite negotiations with ‘powerful protectors’

The ICC issued a warrant of arrest against Dela Rosa for his role as the national police chief and principal implementer of Duterte’s brutal antidrug campaign from 2016 to 2018.

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Dela Rosa has been in hiding since November 2025 after he learned that an ICC warrant was issued against him. He appeared in the Senate on May 11 to vote for Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano as Senate president and was given refuge in the Senate. He left days later following a shooting incident inside the Senate premises.

Due courtesy

“Next month, November, marks one year since the ICC issued the warrant of arrest for Sen. ‘Bato’ Marapon dela Rosa for his criminal responsibility in the deaths due to the Duterte administration’s policy in the war on drugs,” Remulla said.

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PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said Dela Rosa “has one week to surrender.”

“And we are preparing for that,” Nartatez said, adding that whoever was helping the fugitive senator would face charges.

Remulla said that the government had given Dela Rosa “all the courtesy that could be afforded a senator of the Republic of the Philippines, but he has shown nothing but cowardice by going into and remaining in hiding.”

Remulla personally went to the Senate on May 11 to arrest the senator, but Cayetano, then newly elected Senate president, persuaded him to leave Dela Rosa in the Senate’s custody.

Potential 10,000 deaths

“Senator Bato mistook my gesture of negotiation as a sign of weakness,” he said. “It’s time for the gloves to come off. It’s time to bring justice to his victims.”

A new task force has been organized “with the sole objective of locating and arresting” the senator.

Nartatez assured the public that the police was ready to implement either a peaceful arrest warrant or an armed confrontation.

“Of course, we would like to have a peaceful resolution of whatsoever conflict, especially in the implementation of any warrant, whether search warrant or arrest warrant,” Nartatez said.

Remulla earlier disclosed that an armed group was protecting the senator. He warned that arresting him could lead to 10,000 deaths.

Co-perpertrator

The last known whereabouts of the senator, a native of Davao del Sur, was in Mindanao. He was the police chief of Davao City under Duterte and his daughter, now Vice President Sara Duterte.

The bounty comes ahead of the start of Duterte’s trial on Nov. 30 for the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder.

Dela Rosa was named as among eight “co-perpetrators” in the antidrug campaign during the Duterte presidency from 2016 to 2018, which was the year before the Philippines withdrawal from the Rome Treaty, which established the ICC, took effect.

However, drug war killings dating back to 2011 during Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao City are included in the charges.

Among the other co-perpetrators named by the ICC is Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, though there is no known ICC arrest warrant against him.

Duterte faces three counts of crimes against humanity, with prosecutors alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders between 2013 and 2018.

Philippine police officially reported more than 6,000 suspected drug offenders killed by officers, most of them allegedly in self-defense during antinarcotics operations, by the time Duterte stepped down as president in June 2022. Human rights groups estimate the number of drug war deaths to be as many as 30,000.

Lawyers for the victims and their families have argued that a full trial could encourage more families to come forward.

Biggest bounty yet

The P50-million reward for Dela Rosa is the biggest so far offered for a fugitive in the Philippines by the government. This compares with, among others, P20 million for gaming tycoon Atong Ang who is wanted for kidnapping and homicide, P10 million for Apollo Quiboloy, who is now detained while on trial for child abuse and qualified human trafficking and P10 million for Abu Sayyaf senior leader Isnilon Hapilon.

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Much larger amounts in peso equivalent, however, were offered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for terrorists. For Hapilon, who was killed in 2017 in Marawi, it was $5 million, or P252 million; for Radullan Sahiron, another notorious leader of the Abu Sayyaf it was $1 million, or around P63.6 million; and for Malaysian Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, who was linked to the 2002 Bali bombing, it was $5 million, or approximately P230.74 million. Marwan was killed in Mamasapano in Maguindanao in 2015. —WITH REPORTS FROM AFP AND INQUIRER RESEARCH