Police detain suspect in Philippine Senate shooting

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Police said on Thursday that they detained a person in connection with gunfire the previous night inside the Philippine senate, where a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court took refuge.

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The shooting did not result in any casualties and came as the one-time enforcer of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug crackdown sheltered at the legislature.

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It was not immediately clear how many suspects were involved in the shooting, with Philippine authorities saying investigation was ongoing.

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“He (suspect) was arrested at the area of the incident, at the second floor of the senate building,” Philippine police spokesman Brigadier-General Randulf Tuano told reporters.

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Police seized live ammunition from the man, who was being tested for gunshot residue.

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Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla had said senate security fired “warning shots” at several unknown armed men who had gone up the senate stairway.

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The gunmen later fired into the air and left, he added, while senators, including the fugitive Dela Rosa, barricaded themselves inside their offices.

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Senator Ronald Dela Rosa took refuge in the senate aiming to avoid arrest on a warrant from the ICC for the crime against humanity of murder.

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Dela Rosa, known as “Bato”, served as national police chief from 2016 to 2018 during the early phase of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.

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The crackdown left thousands dead, many of them drug users and low-level narcotics peddlers, according to human rights monitors.

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His boss Duterte was arrested in March last year, flown to the Netherlands on the same day, and is detained in The Hague awaiting trial.

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AFP

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