Bato breaks silence, turns 64 still in hiding
Absent from Senate sessions since November, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa broke his silence on Wednesday, saying he is “alive and well, and gratefully celebrating 64 years of my God-given life.”
“I am waiting. Waiting for true justice to emerge and prevail. Not this threat of fake, foreign meddling from those who do not and can never really know us or be like us,” he said in a statement posted on his Facebook account.
According to Dela Rosa, if indeed there are cases filed against him over his role in the Duterte drug war, then he awaits the opportunity “to face these cases as a Filipino, before Filipinos.”
“If I would just agree to be arrested and tried [in] a foreign court, then I would be taking for granted the struggles that our heroes and soldiers had done for our freedom. I will never put to waste the blood and sweat of the Filipinos who fought for the Philippines. This is patriotism,” he said.
“I remain patient and composed. I remain dignified,” he added.
Unconfirmed ‘warrant’
In November last year, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant against Dela Rosa as an accused in the case arising from the deadly antidrug campaign waged by the Duterte administration.
Before entering politics, Dela Rosa served as the first Philippine National Police chief appointed by then President Rodrigo Duterte, becoming the main enforcer of the crackdown.
But since Remulla’s disclosure regarding the supposed ICC warrant, other government officials have yet to confirm seeing or receiving such document.
Still, Dela Rosa has since been absent from the Senate.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla, the Ombudsman’s brother, earlier said Dela Rosa was last known to be in Davao.
According to Jonvic, there still was no ICC warrant for the lawmaker’s arrest.
Why so excited?
In his birthday message, Dela Rosa also said: “To those who are becoming impatient, try flipping your script. Ask yourself: why are you excited to surrender a fellow Filipino to foreigners? Where is your moral fiber? Why are you the first to applaud the collapse of our sovereignty? I, too, wait for your change of heart.”
The senator thanked everyone who remembered, greeted, supported, and prayed for him on his special day.
“I am even braver, knowing you are with me in this fight,” he said.
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