Philippine senator evades ICC arrest warrant inside Senate building

Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa avoided arrest on Monday when officers from the National Bureau of Investigation tried to serve an International Criminal Court warrant inside the Philippine Senate building. Video footage showed him running up stairs and along corridors to escape the officers, hours before the ICC made the warrant public.

By Tuesday, dela Rosa remained inside the Senate under protective custody. The chamber had become the centre of a legal and political standoff over whether the government would hand him over to The Hague.

Dela Rosa served as the first national police chief under former president Rodrigo Duterte and was one of the most visible faces of Duterte's "war on drugs" campaign. The ICC warrant relates to that campaign, which has faced accusations of mass killings.

The standoff signals deepening trouble for the Duterte camp, analysts said. The former president's allies now face legal consequences for the anti-drug campaign at the same time that his daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, faces impeachment proceedings. Control of the Senate matters more than ever, since the chamber hosts both her impeachment trial and now serves as a political shelter for one of her father's closest allies.

Riot police blocked Duterte supporters and dela Rosa supporters gathered at the Senate gates on Tuesday. The convergence of these legal and political battles has raised the stakes of who controls the Philippine Senate.