Former President Rodrigo Duterte greeted Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on his 64th birthday on 21 January, telling him to stand firm as a rock amid the problems confronting him, according to Vice President Sara Duterte.

“Earlier, I spoke with President Duterte and told him it was Senator Bato dela Rosa’s birthday. ‘Oh right, that was yesterday,’ he said. I told him to send a message to Senator Bato. He said, ‘Happy birthday, Senator Bato. Stay tough like a rock.’ That was his wish,” the Vice President said in an interview at The Hague, Netherlands on 22 January.

Sara visited her father, who has been detained at the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) detention center on charges of crimes against humanity over the alleged extrajudicial killings during his administration’s drug war.

Drugs war implementor

Dela Rosa, a staunch ally of the former president, served as the chief of the Philippine National Police and implementor of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

The senator has been absent from Senate plenary sessions since 11 November, after Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla gave unverified information that the ICC had issued an arrest warrant for him.

Dela Rosa has been tagged as one of the co-perpetrators in the crimes against humanity case of the former president, who has been detained at The Hague since March last year.