Ping cautions vs airing updates on Bato hunt
Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has cautioned authorities against publicly disclosing operational details in the intensified search for Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, saying secrecy is essential when law enforcers pursue a high-profile target.
“SSSHHH… : When pursuing a high-profile target or handling a sensitive live case, secrecy discipline is key, unless disinformation is necessary to flush the quarry into the open,” Lacson said in a post on X on Sunday.
The Philippine National Police has stepped up its manhunt on Dela Rosa after a one-week ultimatum for the senator to surrender, issued by PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr., expired on Friday. The search is unfolding amid a P50-million reward announced by Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla for information leading to the senator’s arrest.
Lacson, who was PNP chief from 1999 to 2001 and Dela Rosa’s superior at the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, said authorities should not immediately publicize “solid” information that could help solve a case until after the operation is completed.
He stressed that sensitive information should be disclosed ahead of time only as a deliberate strategy to flush out the quarry.
“We’re just really quiet and only when the [target] was caught or neutralized that it would be telegraphed,” Lacson said in an earlier interview. “For sure, Sen. Dela Rosa has been monitoring. And if he believes that his location has already been pinpointed, he’s not stupid to stay there.”
Lacson also acknowledged that releasing information could, in some circumstances, be a deliberate tactic to draw a wanted person out of hiding or avert bloodshed. But he said such a decision should be left to the police, which have wider access to intelligence.
“We’ll just leave it to the PNP because they know better. They have broader access to intelligence information,” he said.
Operational secrecy
The PNP on Oct. 28 announced the launch of round-the-clock hotlines for tips on Dela Rosa’s whereabouts. PNP public information chief Col. Allen Rae Co presented five mobile numbers that the public may call or text with verified information. Co warned that people who deliberately submit false information or make prank calls could face criminal charges.
“This is an official law enforcement resource, these are the numbers and you can be criminally charged if you play with them,” he said.
The PNP said it had received no new information on whether Dela Rosa intended to surrender. Co also said negotiations remained ongoing with a supposed armed group allegedly protecting the senator in Mindanao.
Nartatez issued the one-week surrender ultimatum on Oct. 23, saying police operations would proceed regardless of the reward or the deadline. The PNP has not publicly disclosed further operational details.
Dela Rosa is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with alleged crimes linked to the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
The senator has been in hiding since November 2025 after learning that an ICC warrant had been issued against him.
Legal challenge
In a manifestation dated Oct. 27, Dela Rosa’s lawyers renewed their plea for the Supreme Court to act urgently on a motion for reconsideration filed in June and issue a temporary restraining order against any attempt to arrest him for eventual surrender to the ICC.
The lawyers, from the firm of Israelito Torreon, argued that the P50-million bounty and Remulla’s description of Dela Rosa as “armed and dangerous” heightened the threat to the senator’s constitutional rights, particularly his right to life.
“No court has found petitioner Dela Rosa to be armed and dangerous,” the lawyers told the high court. They argued that the label could signal to police operating units that armed resistance should be expected, creating circumstances in which lethal force was more likely to be used.
“Coupled with a bounty and a declaration abandoning restraint, the designation places petitioner Dela Rosa’s right to life under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution in present and serious danger,” they said.
Dela Rosa left the Senate building in the early hours of May 14 after the ICC arrest warrant was unsealed.
He is accused of murder in connection with killings during the drug war while he was PNP chief from 2016 to 2018. He is also named as an alleged co-perpetrator in the ICC’s separate crimes against humanity case against Duterte, which concerns the former president’s antidrug campaign.
Remulla had earlier said on Sept. 8 that authorities knew Dela Rosa’s location. On Oct. 19, he said the senator was in Mindanao under the protection of an armed group and warned that an arrest attempt could lead to 10,000 deaths. The PNP has not independently detailed those claims.
Dela Rosa appeared in the Senate on May 11 to vote in the chamber’s leadership election. He left the premises days later, after a shooting incident, and has not made a subsequent public appearance.
The Senate minority bloc has also called for a peaceful resolution to the effort to arrest the senator.
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