Gunshots have been heard in the Philippine Senate building, the Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano said on Wednesday, as a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court is holed up in the building to resist arrest.
It is unclear who fired the shots in the incident, and no casualties have been reported, multiple senators told reporters on Wednesday night.
“I don’t know what is happening. I do not know if I can keep my people safe here,” Cayetano said in a Facebook livestream from inside the Senate complex in the immediate aftermath of the gunshots. “I’m willing to go out. I’m willing to face anyone who is going to serve the warrant … but do not do this.”
It comes after Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, a longtime ally of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, was captured on CCTV running from local agents through the halls of the Senate earlier on Monday. When local investigative unit officers failed to arrest the 64-year-old, having pursued him through the bowels of parliament, riot police surrounded the Senate compound.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) accuse Dela Rosa of conspiring with Duterte in alleged crimes against humanity, during a brutal anti-drug campaign that killed thousands. On Monday, the ICC confirmed it had issued an arrest warrant for him, citing incidents in which 32 people were killed between 2016 to 2018.
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