(DC file photo)
Following reports that Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa could be hiding in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) led by former Cotabato City mayor Muslimin Sema has denied that the former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief is under their protection.
In a statement, Mayor Sema refuted allegations that Dela Rosa was being protected by his Muslim ‘brothers’, citing there is no verified link between the fugitive senator and the organization despite his ties to figures associated with the group.
According to the mayor, the faction’s Information Committee had already informed him that there was “no established formal relationship” between the senator and the MNLF.
“The claim that the MNLF may be protecting him is speculation, not a confirmed fact,” the committee pointed out in an official pronouncement titled ‘The MNLF is not cuddling (sic) Senator Bato’.
Sema’s denial came after Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Juanita Victor ‘Jonvic’ Remulla Jr. alleged that Dela Rosa was hiding in Mindanao under the protection of a “powerful armed group,” which the former Cavite governor did not identify.
Police are validating the information with PNP deputy chief for administration Lieutenant General Wilson Lopez, PNP supervising the manhunt for Dela Rosa’s arrest.
Dela Rosa, last seen in public leaving the Senate premises at 2:30 a.m. on May 14, faces an arrest order from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, over alleged crimes against humanity linked to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. The DILG has put up a ₱50-million bounty on his arrest.
The MNLF’s Sema faction noted that Dela Rosa had referred to the MNLF mainly in discussions about conflict and peacebuilding.
It also cited Dela Rosa’s push to speed up the integration of qualified MNLF and Moro Islamic Liberation Front members into the police and military, describing this as “policy-level engagement rather than a personal or organizational tie.”
The group likewise acknowledged that MNLF founding chair Nur Misuari was a known friend of Dela Rosa’s political patron, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and that Misuari and the senator may have known each other personally. But it said there was no certainty that Misuari’s faction would, or could, shield Dela Rosa from arrest.
In the meantime, the PNP has announced that it would take “appropriate” legal measures to arrest Dela Rosa.
Gen. Lopez said on Friday last week that police were pursuing the case while the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General have declared the senator a fugitive from justice.
