Shadows in the Senate: The Dramatic Stand-off of Senator "Bato" dela Rosa

Wazzup Pilipinas!? 

On Monday, May 11, 2026, the halls of the Philippine Senate—usually a site of calculated legal debate—erupted into a scene of unprecedented political chaos. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former police chief who spearheaded Rodrigo Duterte’s “War on Drugs,” made a sudden, dramatic appearance after months in hiding, only to find himself the target of an unsealed international arrest warrant and a physical pursuit through the legislative building.

The Return and the Chase

Dela Rosa had been a "ghost" in the Senate since November 2025, when rumors first swirled of a confidential ICC warrant. His return on Monday was timed for a pivotal leadership shakeup where he cast a vote to install Alan Peter Cayetano as the new Senate President, successfully ousting Vicente Sotto III.

However, the victory was short-lived. As the session proceeded, news broke that former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, accompanied by agents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), had arrived at the Senate gates with a physical copy of an ICC warrant.

In a moment that has since dominated social media, security footage captured the Senator—nicknamed "The Rock"—bolting through the corridors. Dela Rosa was seen outrunning NBI agents and specialized personnel in a high-speed sprint to reach the plenary floor, seeking the institutional protection of his colleagues.

The Warrant Unsealed: "Crimes Against Humanity"

Hours after the pursuit, the International Criminal Court in The Hague officially reclassified the warrant as "public." The document, originally issued on November 6, 2025, by Pre-Trial Chamber I, details a grim list of allegations:

The Charges: Crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder.

The Timeline: A "common plan" to "neutralize" (kill) alleged criminals spanning from November 2011 to March 2019.

The Findings: The Court found "reasonable grounds" to believe dela Rosa used his power over the PNP to facilitate killings, encouraged police to use "fictitious self-defense scenarios," and transferred "perpetrator" officers from Davao to other priority regions.

The Risk: The warrant was unsealed partly because dela Rosa allegedly labeled ICC cooperators as "traitors" and fueled "disinformation campaigns," posing a risk to witness security.

A Senate Under Siege

The confrontation has sparked a constitutional standoff. Following a motion by Senator Rodante Marcoleta, the Senate officially placed dela Rosa under "protective custody." Senate President Cayetano, in one of his first acts, affirmed that the chamber would shield dela Rosa until he exhausted all legal remedies, arguing that "only arrest warrants issued by Philippine courts" would be honored within the premises. Meanwhile, NBI Director Melvin Matibag confirmed that his agents would respect the Senate's custody but would remain on standby.

"I move that Senator Bato be placed under Senate protective custody... until this institution is able to do just the same," Marcoleta declared during the plenary.

Pandemonium in the Streets

Outside, the atmosphere in Pasig City is volatile.

Pro-Bato Rallies: Hundreds of supporters have gathered, leading to skirmishes with local police.

Violence Reported: Reports surfaced of protesters splashing water on vehicles and clashing with officers in a desperate show of loyalty to the Senator.

A Nation Divided: While critics of the drug war see this as a long-overdue step toward justice—following the 2025 arrest and transfer of Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague—supporters of the "Davao model" view it as an assault on Philippine sovereignty.

As of Tuesday, May 12, the Senator remains barricaded within the Senate walls. With his legal team filing a "Hail Mary" petition to the Supreme Court for a Temporary Restraining Order, the "Rock" is currently a prisoner of the very institution he was elected to serve, as the world waits to see if the gates of the Senate will eventually open to the ICC.

AirAsia MOVE introduces ‘1x Zero Change Fee’ feature to boost travel

Wazzup Pilipinas!! 





KUALA LUMPUR, 11 May 2026 - AirAsia MOVE (MOVE), the official booking platform for AirAsia flights, launched a new feature ‘1x Zero Change Fee’ by giving travellers greater flexibility when managing their AirAsia flight bookings.

The ‘1x Zero Change Fee’ feature gives travellers a one-time waiver of flight change fees when changing the date or time of their AirAsia flights booked via the MOVE app or airasia.com. Travellers will still be required to pay any fare differences, taxes or other applicable charges in line with standard flight change policies, but the feature significantly reduces the overall cost of making travel changes, offering greater flexibility and peace of mind.







Chan Kok Ding, Head of Flights at AirAsia MOVE commented, “In today’s travel landscape, where plans can change quickly and travellers expect greater control, we remain committed to delivering both flexibility and affordability. With ‘1x Zero Change Fee’, travellers can adjust their plans with greater ease when circumstances change.

“We will continue to enhance the platform with features that make travelling simpler and more seamless, while bringing more exclusive benefits to our MOVE users, all within one app.”

On top of the ‘1x Zero Change Fee’ feature, AirAsia MOVE also offers Easy Cancel add-on that allows eligible passengers to cancel flights up to 48 hours before departure for up to an 80% refund, subject to applicable terms and conditions.

The Silent War: UPD Chemists Arm Science with AI to Topple Superbugs

Wazzup Pilipinas!? 

In the microscopic trenches of global health, a silent war is raging. Traditional antibiotics, once our "miracle cures," are increasingly falling against the rise of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). As bacteria evolve to survive our best treatments, the search for new weapons has never been more urgent.  

Now, a team of visionary chemists from the University of the Philippines Diliman – College of Science (UPD-CS) has stepped onto the battlefield, unveiling a sophisticated AI tool designed to turn the tide.  

The Secret Weapon: ISCAPE

Researchers Remmer Salas, Dr. Portia Mahal Sabido, and Dr. Ricky Nellas of the UPD-CS Institute of Chemistry have developed ISCAPE. Standing for Interpretable Support Vector Classifier of Antibacterial Activity of Peptides against Escherichia coli, this AI-powered sentinel predicts whether specific molecules can hunt and kill the bacterium E. coli.  

The tool focuses on Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs)—small, potent molecules that represent one of the most promising frontiers in modern medicine.  

Breaking the "Trial-and-Error" Cycle

For decades, discovering new peptides was a grueling marathon. Scientists had to synthesize countless candidates and test them manually—a process Salas describes as agonizingly time-consuming. ISCAPE shatters this bottleneck.  

Simple Input: Researchers only need a SMILES string (a simple line of text representing a molecule) to evaluate a candidate.  

Pattern Recognition: The AI has learned to identify the specific molecular "fingerprints" that distinguish a killer peptide from an inactive one. 

No More "Black Box": Unlike many mysterious AI models, ISCAPE is interpretable. It actually shows researchers which features make a peptide effective, allowing them to design even better molecules from the ground up.  

+1

"It doesn’t replace laboratory experiments, but it makes discovery more efficient and helps researchers focus on the most promising candidates," Salas explained.  

A Global Impact

While currently optimized for E. coli, the potential for ISCAPE is limitless. The model can be adapted and retrained to target other deadly bacterial strains or even different types of bioactive peptides, provided there is high-quality data to feed it.  

The team’s groundbreaking work has already gained international recognition, appearing in the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling. In a move to empower the global scientific community, the researchers have made ISCAPE publicly available via Hugging Face Spaces, with the code and training data hosted on GitHub.  

By accelerating the early stages of drug discovery, these UPD chemists aren't just creating software—they are providing the blueprint for the next generation of life-saving treatments in the fight against AMR.