Where is Dela Rosa? Philippine senator outmanoeuvres president in evading arrest

T he wanted man outran security agents , rallied protesters and even serenaded the media with a military hymn. Then, after a sudden exchange of gunfire, the Philippines’ most controversial lawmaker slipped out of the heavily guarded senate building in the middle of the night. Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who is wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity, is now nowhere to be seen. The week’s shambolic events have not only prompted criticism of the country’s senate, where Duterte’s allies controversially shielded Dela Rosa from arrest, but also of the president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who appears outmanoeuvred. Dela Rosa is wanted by the international criminal court for his role as the enforcer of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, in which thousands of people were killed. But the saga over his arrest is also underlined by a fierce power struggle between Marcos and Duterte’s daughter, the vice-president, Sara Duterte. They once campaigned together but relations quickly soured, reaching an all-time low last year when Marcos allowed her father to be arrested and transferred to the ICC . The 81-year-old leader is now imprisoned at The Hague , facing charges of crimes against humanity. Both Marcos and Dela Rosa deny wrongdoing. Dela Rosa, a tough-talking former head of the Philippine national police, had been in hiding for months after reports emerged of his looming arrest in November. …