Former senator Gringo Honasan on Friday said the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte is just a “waste of time” and would only cause disunity among Filipinos.

In a forum at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City, Honasan said he fully agreed with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the government should focus on addressing the country’s problems instead of discussing political problems.

“I said I agree with the President — his initial statement that we will be wasting time on the eve of the elections. We will also be wasting resources — the productive man hours that should be spent on basic services,” Honasan said in English and Filipino.

Honasan served as a senator for 21 years and is eyeing a Senate comeback in the upcoming midterm elections.

He said the ongoing political chaos will damage the country’s institutions.

“The damage to our institutions to my mind is becoming unmanageable. We are becoming very unpredictable and unstable politically and economically. So, which investors will gamble on us in the long term?” he said.

He said the Philippines is becoming divided due to the growing political crisis.

“I worry that the nation is being spilt. We are exposing our strengths and weaknesses as a developing country to temporary friends and allies and adversaries. So, what are we going to do? Let’s prepare. The minimum requirement for readiness is unity and sacrifice,” he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa expressed no regrets about having enforced the previous administration’s war on drugs.

“There is no shame in having blood on my hands because I protected the Filipino people,” Dela Rosa said during the proclamation rally of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipinas (PDP)-Laban last Thursday.

He was responding to President Marcos’s statement during the kickoff rally on Tuesday for the senatorial slate of the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas.

“None of them have blood on their hands because of ‘tokhang.’ None of them were accomplices in the abuse who pocketed sacks of money, exploited the pandemic, and allowed our countrymen to get sick and die during the Covid period,” Marcos had said of the Alyansa senatorial slate.

Dela Rosa saw Marcos’ remarks as discrediting the senatorial candidates who favored the previous administration’s Oplan Tokhang — the war against illegal drugs instigated by former President Rodrigo Duterte.

“There is no one else involved in ‘tokhang’ but me, right? So, with all due respect, I will respond. If my hands are tainted with blood, I’m not ashamed of it. If my hands now are tainted by their blood, it’s the blood of dangerous people,” Dela Rosa said.

“If it was needed for my hands to be stained with the blood of evil people to protect the lives of the good, kind, and law-abiding citizens, I would do that. You can carve it in stone,” he said.

Dela Rosa, who was chief of the Philippine National Police and the chief architect of Duterte’s bloody drug war, said the noise from the other side “only shows” that the Duterte-led party is “not an insignificant opposition.”

“They’ve done nothing but attack us over and over. We were quiet. We were giving you the moment. 11 February was yours, and 13 February is ours. You have the moment. But why are we being attacked? Does this mean they’re afraid of us?” De la Rosa said.

In his speech, Marcos also said that none of the administration-backed senatorial candidates were pro-China or pro-Philippine offshore gaming operators, citing the increasing tension between the Philippines and China over the disputed West Philippine Sea.

But Dela Rosa defended himself, emphasizing that he is ready to fight for the WPS to prove he is not pro-China, despite being an ally of Duterte.