‘Rogue cop’ Nuezca deserves death penalty for the cold-blooded Tarlac killings- Bato

MANILA, Philippines— “That rogue cop deserves the death penalty, ” former top cop and now senator  Ronald “Bato,” dela  Rosa said on Tuesday.

He was referring to Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca who was caught on video shooting his neighbors in Paniqui, Tarlac—52-year-old Sonya Gregorio and her 25-year-old son, Frank— at pointblank after an altercation.

“Ayaw nila nila ng death penalty, eh! (They don’t want the death penalty),”  he said in another text message to reporters.

“Yung ginawa ng pulis na cold-blooded killing is double murder (or two counts of murder) and a heinous crime na ang dapat parusa ay death penalty pero hanggang ngayon ay hirap na hirap pa ring umusad yung ino-author kong death penalty bill,” the senator went on.

(The  cold-blooded  killing   by the policeman is double murder and a heinous   crime that deserves the death penalty, but  until  now, my death penalty bill  is not moving.)

The killings drew public outrage and fresh calls for the revival of capital punishment in the country.

But even after this latest incident,  the senator is uncertain whether the proposal would get his colleagues’ support in the Senate.

“I don’t know. I cannot read their minds,” dela Rosa said.

Following the Tarlac incident, several senators immediately moved to have the “unlawful killings” investigated.

Those who called for the Senate probe are Senators Sonny Angara, Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri. [ac]