MANILA – Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa admitted that Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano was the one who urged him to appear at the Senate on May 11 after months of absence, as discussions on a change in Senate leadership unfolded.

In a media report it said that in an interview on “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho”, Dela Rosa said his colleagues called on him to return to participate in the vote for new Senate leadership, suggesting that efforts to unseat then-Senate President Tito Sotto were already underway.

Asked who specifically contacted him, Dela Rosa said in the program taped on May 13: “Si Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, ang aming majority leader.” (Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, our majority leader.)

“That’s my duty, to vote. So they cannot question me for being here, and to sit as senator-judge, because it is my duty as a senator,” Dela Rosa.

Dela Rosa appeared at the Senate on May 11 after six months of absence from public view. He was later pursued inside the Senate building by National Bureau of Investigation agents attempting to serve an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.

He had been out of public sight since November 2025, after then Justice Secretary and Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla disclosed the existence of the ICC warrant.

“I was all over the Philippines, but I never went out of Philppine jurisdiction because I am a Filipino,” Dela Rosa said when asked if he had been in Davao, his hometown. In a separate interview, he previously admitted that he was “hiding.”

Dela Rosa was among the 13 senators who voted to install Cayetano as Senate president, which led to Sotto’s removal. He was later designated as chair of the Senate committee on public order.

The ICC later confirmed the existence of an arrest warrant against him for alleged crimes against humanity of murder linked to the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign, which he helped implement as Philippine National Police chief.

Dela Rosa also said in the interview that he did not know whose vehicle he rode when he arrived at the Senate.

“Hindi ko alam kung kaninong van ’yon. Basta sabi ni Senator Alan, sumakay ka diyan sa van,” he said. (I don’t know whose van that was. Senator Alan just told me to ride in the van.)

On May 13, Cayetano confirmed that Dela Rosa had ridden in his vehicle on the way to the Senate.

Dela Rosa later left the Senate at around 2:30 a.m. on May 14.

Reports indicated that a white police vehicle and a black van exited the Senate parking area between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., although it remains unclear who was inside the black van.

Cayetano said Dela Rosa and Sen. Robin Padilla left the Senate together, but maintained that the departure was not unlawful since there was no Philippine court warrant against Dela Rosa.

The Philippine National Police has since launched an internal investigation into the white police vehicle seen trailing the black van.