MANILA - As tension and gunfire erupted inside the Philippine Senate, where Senator Ronald dela Rosa had taken refuge to evade arrest and later escaped, Llore Pasco, the mother of two sons killed in an anti-drugs campaign, said the scene felt painfully familiar.

For her, it reinforced the same injustice that pushed many families to seek accountability through the International Criminal Court for the thousands of deaths in the "war on drugs" launched by former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016. Dela Rosa, a former national police chief, was Duterte's lieutenant and the architect of the campaign.

Pasco, who had just marked the ninth anniversary of her sons' deaths in anti-drug operations, said the spectacle of a powerful politician being granted due process and political protection stood in sharp contrast to the swift and often fatal treatment of alleged drug suspects.

"That's how it is. If you are rich and powerful, even if you are at fault, you are still protected. It's not equal," said Pasco, 71.

Hours before chaos broke out inside the Senate, Pasco and other families of drug war victims had joined protesters outside the building to demand dela Rosa's arrest. Their calls came after Senate leaders placed him under protection on the same day the ICC unsealed a warrant for his arrest.

Dela Rosa, 64, is accused by the ICC of crimes against humanity, the same charges faced by the 81-year-old former president, who is awaiting trial in The Hague following his arrest last year.

Both Duterte and dela Rosa have defended the campaign, denying they authorised unlawful killings and insisting police acted in self-defence.

Police say more than 6,000 suspects were killed in official anti-drug operations during Duterte's presidency. Among them were Pasco's two sons, who were killed on May 12, 2017.

Rights groups, however, say the actual death toll is far higher, while only a small number of drug war killings have resulted in convictions in Philippine courts.

Late on Wednesday, gunshots rang out inside the Senate building, sending people scrambling for cover. The incident came hours after dela Rosa appealed on social media for supporters to mobilise, claiming law enforcement officers were on their way to arrest him.

Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano later said dela Rosa had left the Senate premises on Thursday.

"Surrender and face the crimes you're accused of if you really have no guilt," Pasco said. "There is a process, that's what you call due process. But for us, what process did our families receive? Our children were simply killed."

"They see our children as a scourge on society because they used drugs, when in fact addiction is something that should be treated," she said.

For Dahlia Cuartero, whose son was killed in 2019, the disparity in justice remains deeply personal.

"Justice in this country is really only for the rich. For us poor people, we have nothing to rely on," Cuartero said, adding that the ICC has given victims a voice they never had at home.

"We are thirsty for justice," she said.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 1:54 PM.

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