(DC file photo)
On Wednesday, Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa, expressed grave concern over the ₱50-million bounty offered for his arrest as this, he cited, has put his head on the chopping block.
The country’s former ‘Top Cop’ during then president Rodrigo ‘Rody’ Duterte’s war on drugs, disclosed that because of the offered reward, his life is now in “serious danger.”
This has prompted Dela Risa to seek the Supreme Court’s help in stopping his arrest.
The former PNP chief’s arrest warrant was issued earlier by the International Criminal Court (ICC), where prosecutors had named Dela Rosa as one of eight ‘co-perpetrators’ in the drug crackdown that killed thousands of drug suspects and drug users during the Duterte presidency from 2016 to 2022.
In an official announcement, Malacañan had given the fugitive senator a deadline to surrender peacefully.
Last week, law enforcement authorities and even Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Juanito Victor ‘Jonvic’ Remulla Jr. had designated Dela Rosa as “armed and dangerous.”
This prompted a reaction from the senator who noted: “In law enforcement practice, the designation signals to operating units that armed resistance should be anticipated, which is precisely the setting in which lethal force is most likely to be used.” And coupled with a bounty and a declaration abandoning restraint, Dela Rosa added that “the designation places his right to life (. . .) in present and serious danger.”
Thus he is requesting for the Supreme Court to prevent law enforcement officers from arresting him and to block his surrender to the ICC.
But in this petition, Sec. Remulla accused the former top policeman of employing a double standard.
“Sadly, he did not afford the same rights to the thousands killed in the drug war. They never had their day to prove their innocence nor be proven guilty. He was judge, jury and executioner,” the DILG chief pointed out.
