A teary-eyed opposition Senator Bato de la Rosa made a “sincere appeal” to President Marcos Jr., convincing him not to send him to The Hague, the headquarters of the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity tied to the bloody drug war.
De la Rosa called his current situation “the lowest point of my life,” and pleaded to Marcos not to enforce the existing warrant that could send him away from the Philippines.
“I hope he won’t send me to The Hague…If I have to be held accountable for anything, I will face it in a local court, not a foreign one,” De la Rosa told reporters in a chance interview outside his office.
He begged Marcos to be considerate of his challenging situation, reminding him that he might end up in the same legal trouble in the future.
Despite his ordeal, De la Rosa claims he has no hard feelings toward Marcos, though he insisted that it is his “moral obligation” and “constitutional mandate” to protect every Filipino against extrajudicial rendition by foreign bodies.
The embattled former police chief remains headstrong in his refusal to honor the existing ICC warrant against him. He insisted that he would not surrender to the ICC, deriding it as an “attack [on] our sovereignty.”
In the meantime, De la Rosa will be housed in the Senate while he exhausts all possible legal remedies in the country to block the enforcement of the warrant.
Senator Risa Hontiveros took a jab at the new Senate leadership for allowing the so-called traditions to be “misused to avoid accountability.” She also lamented that the chamber has gone viral for “the wrong reasons.”
Senate reso calls for Bato’s surrender
Minority senators formalized their call to De la Rosa to surrender to authorities through a resolution filed on Monday.
They urged their embattled colleague to yield to Philippine authorities while he exhausted all judicial remedies to block the implementation of the ICC warrant.
They likewise warned that the Senate has “no constitutional or statutory authority” to provide its members with protective custody or sanctuary from lawful arrest.
The resolution was signed by Senators Tito Sotto, Ping Lacson, Kiko Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, and Hontiveros.
Newly installed Senate President Alan Cayetano, however, advised them to be considerate of their colleague, regardless of their political standing.
“My advice to them is don’t be personal. Think of what’s better for the country, what’s better for the institution,” Cayetano told reporters in a chance interview.
“In politics, you don’t always want your opponent to be there, but you don’t wish them to be shipped off to a foreign country.”
De la Rosa oversaw the bloody anti-narcotic operations waged by the Duterte administration, being the former PNP chief from 2016 to 2018.
ICC prosecutors named De la Rosa as “indirect co-perpetrator of former president Rodrigo Duterte for the crime against humanity of murder, allegedly committed between November 2011 and March 2019.
A scuffle ensued at the Senate on Monday after NBI operatives chased De la Rosa in an attempt to arrest him on an ICC warrant.
A fuming De la Rosa entered the session hall, showing off a bruised finger he sustained from the altercation.
His surprise appearance broke his six-month absence from the Senate, and was aimed at unseating then Senate president Tito Sotto to block the execution of the warrant. The coup succeeded following a 13-9-2 vote. Sotto denied Cayetano’s allegations that he allowed the entry of the NBI operatives.