Let us call a spade a spade. Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa has proven himself a middling orator with his long privilege speech delivered at the Senate seeking that he, his boss, former president Rodrigo Duterte and others accused of murdering thousands of Filipinos in the course of their “war on drugs” be protected by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. from arrest by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Police (Interpol.)
Bato, as the moniker implies, is supposed to hard-headed and by delivering a prolonged philippic against what he sees as his date with global justice, he demonstrated he is scared shitless about living rent-free at the detention facilities in The Hague where former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died. It might also be the case that Duterte shares his morbid fear, since he opted out of Malacanang, which is supposed to be inhabited by ghosts, perhaps including that of one citizen whose cadaver was found in what appeared to be a Palace bunker as the Marcoses fled in 1986.
The senator is supposed to be more than a Michael Cohen who would take a bullet for Donald Trump. In fact, when he was the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) under Duterte, he ordered all cops to keep their noses clean or else “papatayin ko kayo” (I will kill you) right at Camp Crame. Bato was so used to seeing dead people in Davao City that it has become part of lexicon to solve everything through murder. Now, this fellow suddenly talks of human rights, the defense of sovereignty and steadfast opposition to meddling by the transnational Interpol and the dirty tentacles of the ICC.
What he really pleads is that he, Duterte and their cohorts in the bloody “war on drugs” be spared from then investigation and possible trial in The Hague for crafting a national campaign to exterminate drug users, pushers and those who coddle them. De la Rosa ran amuck during his term as PNP chief as the worst enforcers from Davao City were transferred to Metro Manila for “clearing operations” while others were assigned to decimate Duterte’s supposed competitors in the drug trade—the Parojinogs. Now, Bato liberally talks about justice, the kind of justice denied the 30,000 or more who died so other drug syndicates could monopolize the dirty business.
For people to understand the context of Bato’s jeremiad, he rails against impending arrest, argues that such apprehension is illegal, unconstitutional and offends the Filipino people, and warns that Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla was off his rockers when he said the Interpol would not be impeded when its agents arrive to arrest him. Duterte and their fellow respondents. He marshals old arguments, claiming that the Philippines was no longer covered by the Rome Statute when Duterte conveniently withdrew from the treaty to save his ass. This doesn’t hold water as the Philippines was still part of the global agreement when the crimes were committed.
Claiming that the US did not sign the treaty to protect its own citizens from the long reach of the statute, Bato couldn’t invoke the US lead that he is exempt from the workings of the Rome Statute. Well, Bato is not a US citizen and the Republic of Dutertistan is yet to be born, so he cannot summon the angels of mercy to protect him from being hauled off to The Hague. Illusions carry little weight, and they have short legs, which operated only when Duterte duped his own cops to kill, only to be thrown under the bus later, as the cop killers of Kian delos Santos tragically found out when they were convicted by an inferior court. De la Rosa got it all wrong when he dabbles with the Latin phrase “parens patriae” that Duterte used to describe himself. Yet, Duterte’s “parens patriae” was time bound. It only lasted for six years and whoever followed him was not bound to be a “parens patriae” to the killers convicted by the courts. His lord protector became an ordinary citizen at noon of June 30, 2022.
De la Rosa sees that the Marcos Jr. government is shifting its position on the ICC and the role of Interpol. Not only Justice Secretary Remulla but also Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra and other officials are changing their tune. After vehement refusals to cooperate with the ICC, Guevarra saw the light at the end of the tunnel and now says the ICC prosecutor can proceed with his investigation in the country. With the Dutertes now locked in a bitter dispute with the Marcoses and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, getting Duterte safely incarcerated in The Netherlands defangs the Davao City political dynasty. The Dutertes have ended up as one banana short of a bunch.
Finally, Bato quotes the controversial Harry Roque for his theory that the ICC cannot implement an arrest warrant against Duterte, de la Rosa and their minions since the court has no manpower to do it. They forgot that the court in The Hague had war criminals arrested, tried and convicted. It is substantive justice at stake and junking the Rome Statute to avoid prosecution on March 18, 2018, is a vacuous scheme. The crimes alleged to have been committed by de la Rosa, Duterte and others happened when the Philippines was bound to respect the Rome Statute, which means they must face the music as civilized men even if they acted like butchers in a pigpen. But then, Bato failed to understand his idol Marcus Aurelius when the Roman statesman advised: “If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it.”
