The Philippine authorities started a nationwide manhunt on Thursday for Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a week after he evaded an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in a dizzying sequence of events.
The police said they have stepped up monitoring of all ports of exit in the country. The authorities said they have no record of him going abroad.
Mr. dela Rosa is accused by the I.C.C. of committing crimes against humanity as the chief enforcer of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly crackdown on drug users and peddlers. He denies the charges and has tried to fight back against the I.C.C. arrest warrant through multiple means.
Last week, Mr. dela Rosa, who is known as Bato, which means “rock” in Tagalog, sought refuge in the Senate after outrunning government agents in a dramatic chase. He holed up there for two nights. Eventually, law enforcement entered the chamber in a bid to arrest him. They exchanged gunfire with senate security guards, and in the ensuing chaos, Mr. dela Rosa fled. He also filed a petition with the Supreme Court to block his arrest, but on Wednesday the court ruled against him.
His location remains unknown.
“Senator Bato is a fugitive from justice, and he should be brought to the I.C.C. to face the charges before him,” Justice Secretary Fredderick A. Vida told reporters on Thursday.
Mr. Duterte is in I.C.C. custody in The Hague and facing similar charges, which he denies. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have been killed in his so-called drug war, many in summary executions or by vigilantes on motorbikes. He was placed into custody last year following a dramatic arrest in Manila.
In November, there was speculation that the I.C.C. had issued a sealed warrant for Mr. dela Rosa, who then appeared to go into hiding for months. He showed up at the Senate on May 12 to vote for a new leader sympathetic to his ally Vice President Sara Duterte, who had just been impeached by the House of Representatives. The I.C.C. warrant was unsealed that day. Government agents were waiting at the Senate building to apprehend Mr. dela Rosa but failed, for which they have come under immense criticism.
Family members of the antidrug campaign’s victims have long said they have been denied justice.
“We are very frustrated with what happened at the Senate,” said Kristina Conti, a lawyer for the families of several victims. “The emotions of the victims range from bemused — I mean, there was some comedy — to outright anger.”
Ms. Conti said it was especially galling to the families, many of whom are workers struggling for a daily wage, to see Mr. dela Rosa turn up at the Senate after vanishing for six months, only to get away again “after showing up for work one day.”
Mr. dela Rosa has often been described as a loyal foot soldier of Mr. Duterte, with the men sharing a friendship over four decades.
For years before he was elected president of the Philippines, Mr. Duterte was mayor of Davao City, where he appointed Mr. dela Rosa police chief. There, they waged an antidrug crackdown that would serve as a blueprint for the nationwide campaign years later, which spanned Mr. Duterte’s term as president from 2016 to 2022.
As president, Mr. Duterte appointed Mr. dela Rosa as the country’s police chief. While Mr. Duterte provided the rhetoric for the drug war, Mr. dela Rosa was seen as the muscle. Within months, Mr. dela Rosa told former drug users and sellers to kill drug lords and burn their houses down, though he later said he misspoke because he was angry.
But he also told police officers that they would have to kill in the fight against illegal drugs.
“Are you ready to die? But first of all, before dying, are you willing to kill?” he said in a speech in 2016. “This is what is important.”
Three years later, he was elected to the Senate. In 2024, Mr. dela Rosa told reporters he had no regrets about the antidrug campaign and would do it again. He was re-elected last year.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who oversees the Philippine police force, said the search for Mr. dela Rosa was complicated by the fact that he has many people close to him still embedded within the Philippine National Police.
“It’s hard to discern who you can trust,” Mr. Remulla wrote in a WhatsApp message. “We are careful on who is included in the task force for the hunt.”
