‘Bato’ admits ignoring ICC calls

Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa admitted on Thursday that he had ignored calls from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

This comes as the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC — who is investigating the alleged killings linked to the drug war spearheaded by former President Rodrigo Duterte — named Dela Rosa as a “possible suspect” in its investigation.

To recall, the senator served as the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief from 2016 to 2018 and during his tenure, he made headlines regularly for leading the controversial drug war and “Oplan Tokhang” operations throughout the country.

“People have been contacting our office, but we’ve been ignoring them,” Dela Rosa told reporters after filing his Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) for senator.

In his defense, he explained that the ICC had no jurisdiction over the Philippines as the country officially left the ICC membership in 2019.

“We don’t talk to them. They might just be some troublemakers trying to take advantage of the situation,” Dela Rosa said.

“They’re trying to make a name for themselves by pretending to be European who want to interview me. Right around the time Sonny Trillanes brought up this issue, we received a lot of calls. I told my staff not to worry about it, because they might just be some troublemakers trying to take advantage of the situation,” he added.

Trillanes earlier posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account a supposed redacted copy of an order by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor, naming Dela Rosa and four other PNP ranking officials as suspects in the international court’s probe.