Chaos Ensues After Gunshots Ring Inside Philippine Senate

Gunshots rang out in the Philippine Senate yesterday as authorities attempted to arrest Ronald dela Rosa, a key ally of now-jailed former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Rodrigo Duterte was elected to the presidency in 2016, set to serve a six-year term where he planned to focus on eliminating drugs and violence. Duterte was the first-ever Philippine president to come from Mindanao, a large island that covers much of the southern side of the archipelago.

Unfortunately, Mindanao is also the most unsafe island in the nation, with certain areas posing a high risk of terrorism, drug trafficking, and violence, particularly during nighttime. Regions like Siargao, Camiguin, and Dinagat are considered safe due to high tourist flow, but the rest of the island simply has a high police presence to protect the people.

As a response to this, Duterte launched a massive "war on drugs" campaign upon entering office, targeting drug traffickers all over Mindanao and other islands. However, his approach proved to be brutal. His officers only targeted the poor, rather than taking out high-level drug lords, and he encouraged violence from the very beginning. Duterte described drug users as "vermin" and allowed police officers to kill victims without trial, falsifying evidence and planting drugs or weapons to justify their actions.

The reckless operations also killed thousands of uninvolved bystanders, further impacting poorer areas. Children were left orphaned without their parents to support them, and communities were torn apart by the violence. In total, estimates place the total death toll of Duterte's war on drugs to be somewhere between 7,000 and 30,000 people.

Years later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigated the operations and found that Duterte had, in fact, committed crimes against humanity with the systematic, unjust killings. He was arrested by the ICC in March 2025 and remains there to this day– his trial date has not been set, but he could very well face the rest of his life in a Dutch prison.

Meanwhile, the ICC has begun to come after his allies as well. This week, the court issued an arrest warrant for Ronald dela Rosa, one of Duterte's key allies during his presidency. He fled his home, seeking safety from some of his close friends in the Philippine Senate. After evading the agents, dela Rosa sprinted into the chamber and stayed there for two nights, as the government agents attempting to apprehend him had no jurisdiction over the chamber.

At approximately 7:30 in the evening, shots rang out, sparking chaos in the chamber. By 2:30 am, police reported that dela Rosa had fled the Senate and was evading officers in a vehicle with fellow Senator Robin Padilla. Government officers are still chasing after him, though– if he is able to escape, he will likely have to go into hiding or flee to a nation without an extradition treaty with the ICC.

Fact of the Day (The Fact Site): When double rainbows occur, the colors of the second arc are always reversed. This happens because the second arc is actually a reflection of the first, inverting the colors. Due to this effect, the third arc of a triple rainbow contains the colors in the same order as the first, with the second inverted.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Pride yourself in being someone to whom others can turn. Reliability is a quality to be admired. (Bauvard)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Rectify (verb, REK-tuh-fye) - Rectify is a formal word meaning “to correct (something that is wrong).”

In a Sentence: We were given the wrong room key, but the hotel management quickly rectified the situation.

Image credit to AFP