Palace hunts down Bato arrest peddler

An arrest order against Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa stands based on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant on him as a co-perpetrator on the Crimes Against Humanity complaint filed against former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

“Yes, still, there is,” Palace press officer, Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro, said when asked about the arrest order against Senator Dela Rosa.

Earlier, allies of the Senator, namely lawyer Jimmy Bondoc and former Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, wrote cryptic posts on Facebook implying the arrest of Dela Rosa, which were reposted by netizens and turned out to be fake news.

With this, Castro said the Presidential Communications Office had issued instructions to check whether there are violations in the posts made by the said personalities, as seen by its Anti-Fake News Desk.

Anti-fake news thrust

“We will check if the posts are malicious. This is why the government is asking for the help of the mainstream media. We are counting on you in terms of verifying whether the source of the information is valid,” she said.

The PCO asked members of the Malacañang Press Corps to identify the source of information claiming that Dela Rosa had been arrested. Castro said the information would be used to track down those behind the posts, which were allegedly spread by trolls.

“We will not let this pass. We will check if there are violations that may be filed against those who made those posts. We are intensively fighting anti-fake news,” she added.

Malacañang earlier described reports of the senator’s alleged arrest as a diversionary tactic by his allies, accusing them of using trolls to mislead the public.

The Palace said the reports were timed to coincide with the presentation of Commission on Audit findings on Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds during the Senate impeachment trial.