MANILA, Philippines — Former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) general manager Nicolas Torre III believes the attempted arrest of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, his former boss, was in no way an act of political “revenge” but a simple matter of “law enforcement.
“Yung implementation of warrant is an implementation of law. It’s not about revenge or anything but law enforcement,” Torre said on the sidelines of the Management Association of the Philippines general membership meeting in Taguig City.
Torre, who led the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte last year implemented the same arrest warrant released by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
For him, warrant implementation should check many requirements such as validity and capability of the agency and the personalities tasked to do the arrest among many others.
“It can be done in various ways but the most important requirement is dialogue so that enforcement would be orderly,” he said.
And if it is mandatory to enforce a warrant, it should be disciplined and compliant of human rights. The community should also not be disturbed,” he said.
Torre also believes the warrant against dela Rosa is indeed enforceable in the Philippines given the precedent of Duterte’s arrest.
“The court who issued both the warrants is the ICC and it has been settled that these are enforceable because we were, at one point, a member of the ICC which covered these offenses,” Torre said in a mix of English and Filipino.
“There are various opinions regarding that but the bottomline is the decision of the government,” he added.
In 2025, Torre said he would “hot hesitate” to arrest his former boss “if the order comes.”
On March 11, 2025, Duterte was arrested by the Philippine National Police in cooperation with the International Criminal Police Organization upon the effect of an ICC warrant that charges him with crimes against humanity related to the Philippine drug war.
Duterte, who had just arrived from a speaking engagement in Hong Kong, was intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, held in the Villamor Airbase and flown to The Hague, Netherlands all in less than 24 hours.