FOR the past two years, waiting for the police to arrest high-profile fugitives has been like watching the grass grow — in the desert.
The last major arrests — Apollo Quiboloy, Alice Guo and Arnolfo Teves Jr. — were made in 2024. These involved real police work and were not the result of the suspects — such as Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta — surrendering to face the charges in court.
Today, the list of high-profile fugitives that have eluded arrest has grown to include:
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity for the extrajudicial killings during the bloody war on drugs that he led on behalf of former president Rodrigo Duterte. The ICC unsealed its arrest warrant on May 11, 2026.
Charlie “Atong” Ang, the gambling tycoon wanted in connection with the missing sabungero, or cockfight enthusiasts, who remains at large despite an Interpol Red Notice. Operations in Cavite failed when police arrived shortly after he vacated the location. A warrant for his arrest was issued on Jan. 13, 2026. Despite a P20 million bounty for his arrest, Ang continues to evade arrest by frequently moving locations.
Gerald Bantag, the former Bureau of Corrections chief wanted for the murder of journalist Percy Lapid, has evaded arrest for years despite high-profile publicity and Interpol notices. A court ordered him arrested on April 12, 2023.
Zaldy Co, the former lawmaker at the center of the flood control bribery scandal, was briefly detained in the Czech Republic before being released due to procedural gaps and later located in Europe seeking political asylum. A warrant for his arrest was issued on Nov. 21, 2025.
Harry Roque, the former spokesman of ex-president Duterte, is wanted for qualified human trafficking. He is now principally in the Netherlands and moving within the Schengen zone, residing as an asylum applicant to avoid arrest and extradition to the Philippines. A court issued an arrest order for him on Sept. 12, 2024.
Curiously, the drought in high-profile fugitive arrests coincides with the appointment of Jonvic Remulla as secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which oversees the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Despite mobilizing the 225,000-strong PNP force and putting up bounties as high as P20 million, Remulla has had zero success in arresting any of these top-tier fugitives. Remulla publicly expressed this frustration during a PNP command conference, questioning how a 200,000-man police force could fail to locate three key fugitives.
Remulla has acknowledged that the PNP suffers from “breakdowns in the information chain” caused by insider leaks. For instance, in May 2026, a massive task force of over 300 police operatives raided a residence in Cavite to serve an arrest warrant on Ang, but he slipped away just 24 hours before the raid.
In the wake of de la Rosa’s escape from the Senate on May 14, 2026, Remulla publicly acknowledged that he was remiss in his handling of the situation.
As interior secretary overseeing the PNP, Remulla failed to issue strict containment orders or establish 24/7 intelligence surveillance outside the Senate exit points to track dela Rosa’s movements. Remulla later conceded that he “should have given better instructions” to the PNP on how to manage the situation.
Remulla initially treated de la Rosa as a “no-touch personality,” citing the senator’s pending Supreme Court petition for a temporary restraining order. But critics pointed out that a pending petition carries no legal restraint on police operations; waiting for a formal ruling gave de la Rosa the window he needed to escape.
When gunshots were fired inside the Senate complex during a standoff between Senate security and law enforcement, Remulla rushed to the premises, not to execute an arrest, but to de-escalate the crisis and to meet with Senate leaders and assure them that police would not conduct a raid on Senate grounds.
While Remulla was occupied in these discussions and press briefings with senators, he took his eye off de la Rosa, who, with the help of Sen. Robinhood Padilla, used the confusion to exit the building unchallenged.
In July, Remulla admitted that de la Rosa, a former PNP chief, and Bantag were using their knowledge of police procedures to elude arrest.
“They know all the police procedures. They know what the next step will be. They are one step ahead because they know the usual methods.”
While the Palace says President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. continues to have confidence and trust in Remulla, the public may not be so patient about law enforcers who are always one step behind the fugitive.
