The Philippine Senate has been gripped by a weeks-long crisis marked by a leadership coup, a mysterious shooting, and the flight of a senator evading an international arrest warrant. The turmoil began on May 11, 2026, when a Duterte-allied bloc ousted incumbent Senate President Tito Sotto and installed Senator Alan Peter Cayetano in his place, coinciding with the dramatic reappearance of Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, who had spent six months in hiding to evade an International Criminal Court warrant over alleged crimes against humanity linked to former president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs. The crisis deepened on May 13 when gunshots were heard near the Senate building during a lockdown, senators traded accusations over the incident, and dela Rosa subsequently slipped out of the premises with the help of a colleague — leaving the upper chamber paralysed by competing claims of authority, walkouts, and a standoff that even prompted President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to say he "watched with horror" at what the institution had become.