FACT CHECK: Old Remulla video misused to falsely claim Dela Rosa has no ICC warrant

Detailed summary

A January 2026 interview clip released months before the ICC unsealed the warrant recirculated on social media and was falsely presented as a current update on Dela Rosa’s arrest

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Claim: Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla said there is no arrest warrant against Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.

Why we fact-checked this: A reel posted on November 6 by the Facebook page “Pobre Nga Uyamot” shows an interview clip of Remulla with the overlaid text, “Klaro walang warrant (Clearly no warrant).”

Additional overlaid text read: “Walang kaso si Bato sa Pinas! Pag lumaban, mamatay pulis order sa taas ma-blame! High risk! Law of the land pa rin.”

(Bato has no case in the Philippines! If he fights back, police will die and whoever gave the order will be blamed! High risk! The law of the land still applies.)

In the clip, Remulla says: “Si Bato, ano hahanapin namin? ‘Di ba, alam naming nasa Davao siya. Pero wala naman kaming warrant of arrest. Wala. So bakit namin hahanapin? Ba’t namin aarestuhin? Kung gusto niya, siya [ang] mag-citizen’s arrest.”

(Why will we search for Bato? We know he’s in Davao, but we don’t have an arrest warrant. None. So why would we search for him? Why would we arrest him? If he wants to, let him make a citizen’s arrest.)

As of writing, the video has 2.5 million views, 15,000 reactions, 2,300 comments, and 3,400 shares.

The facts: The clip is old and was misleadingly presented as a current update on Dela Rosa’s status as a subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Rappler. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.