This troubled PMAer breaks into song for alumni sympathy
A day after pleading with the commander in chief, the embattled ex-police general appealed for “peaceful support” also from the police and military—by breaking into song.
Make that his alma mater song from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).
Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa particularly called on his “mistah” or fellow PMA alumni to oppose government attempts to arrest him and fly him to the Netherlands to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
“My appeal to my comrades in the PMA: Remember our song—the PMA hymn,’’ he told reporters in a hallway interview on Wednesday, the third day of his stay at the Senate premises where he has sought refuge to avoid being served the ICC warrant.
‘Oh Hail to Thee’
He then started to sing the hymn “PMA, Oh Hail Thee”: “When bells for us are rung and our last taps is sung, let generations see our country free….’’
After a few more lines, he explained: “I am appealing for a peaceful support so that our government would see that if they are not listening to my plea—that I am a Filipino asking for support from you, that you should not betray me to foreigners. That is my appeal to my comrades, soldiers, police officers who are placed in the same boat.’’
“Show them our sentiment that they don’t want foreigners to interfere with us. We are Filipinos. If they want to hang me, they want me to be crucified, here in our Philippine courts, not in the hands of foreigners,’’ he added.
On Tuesday, Dela Rosa also made a direct appeal to President Marcos not to hand him over to the ICC, noting they had held no personal grudges toward each other despite being on opposing political sides.
Protest outside Senate
A member of PMA Class of 1986, Dela Rosa served as chief of the Philippine National Police from in 2016-2018, becoming the top drug war enforcer of then President Rodrigo Duterte.
Dela Rosa was on his third day holed up at the Senate building after the chamber’s leadership stopped government agents from serving an ICC arrest warrant over his role in Duterte’s bloody drug war.
Outside the Senate on Wednesday, about 500 riot police faced off with some 250 protesters demanding the arrest and handover to the ICC of a person they described as the “architect” of Duterte’s drug war.
The crackdown left thousands dead, human rights monitors say, many of them drug users and low-level narcotics peddlers.
Duterte was arrested in March last year, flown to the Netherlands on the same day, and is detained in the Hague where he awaits trial.
The senator had not been seen publicly since November before emerging on Monday to take part in an unexpected vote that helped Duterte loyalists capture control of the Senate. —WITH A REPORT FROM AFP
