Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa has disclosed that he is relying on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s assurance that he will not be arrested over his involvement in the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation. Dela Rosa, who led the bloody “war on drugs” during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, has expressed confidence that the complaint lodged against him will not result in his arrest.
“May mga pag-uusap kami ng presidente at napag-uusapan namin yan. Sabi nya, kuwan, ‘kahit isang buhok mo, hindi mahahawakan ng ICC.’ Kahit daw wala akong buhok ha?” Dela Rosa said.
“It was actually a promise, nangako siya hindi niya ako ipamimigay sa ICC”, the senator added.
Dela Rosa has taken preemptive measures and asked his colleague, Sen. Francis Tolentino, to represent him legally in case the ICC investigation progresses into a full-blown case. He and fellow Senator Robin Padilla are both eagerly anticipating a possible confrontation with ICC officials, but they prefer to do it in the Philippine Senate’s justice and human rights panel instead of The Netherlands, where the ICC is based.
The Philippine Senate’s justice and human rights panel is expected to investigate the drug war issue “in defense of” Duterte. Dela Rosa and Padilla believe that this would be a better venue to present their side and to defend the actions taken during Duterte’s administration.
Despite the ICC investigation and the possibility of a face-off, Dela Rosa maintains that he is not worried about getting arrested. He is holding on to President Marcos Jr.’s word and believes that the complaint will not succeed to that extent.
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s aggressive “war on drugs,” which began shortly after he took office in 2016, has resulted in the deaths of more than 12,000 Filipinos, primarily from impoverished urban communities. The Philippine National Police has been linked to at least 2,555 of these killings. This campaign, instigated and encouraged by the former president and other high-ranking officials, raises the specter of crimes against humanity.
According to a recent investigation by Human Rights Watch, Philippine police officers are falsifying evidence to justify these extrajudicial killings. Calls for an investigation have grown louder, but then Duterte has shown no sign of backing down from his hardline stance.
Duterte’s embrace of large-scale extrajudicial violence was a defining characteristic of his 22-year tenure as the mayor of Davao City, and was a central tenet of his successful presidential campaign in 2016. As he declared to a crowd of over 300,000 people just prior to his election victory: “If I make it to the presidential palace I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, holdup men, and do-nothings, you better get out because I’ll kill you.”
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