Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa (File photo from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said on Wednesday that he confronted a Spanish legislator for “questioning” a proposed Senate resolution defending former President Rodrigo Duterte against the International Criminal Court (ICC), insisting that foreigners should “respect our sovereignty.”
But Sen. Francis Tolentino, who led the group of senators who met with members of the European Union (EU) parliament, and the head member of the foreign delegation herself, German legislator Hannah Neumann, denied that things got heated between the two lawmakers.
Dela Rosa recounted before reporters the “intense” verbal exchange he supposedly had with Miguel Urban, one of the six-member delegation of the EU parliament’s subcommittee on human rights.
The Senate contingent held the hour-long closed-door meeting with the European lawmakers at the Senate offices in Pasay City.
According to Dela Rosa, he was “slighted” when Urban raised the resolution filed by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada urging the Senate to oppose the ICC’s plan to resume its investigation into the drug war killings during the Duterte administration.
Dela Rosa was the first chief implementer of Duterte’s brutal antidrug campaign when he served as Philippine National Police chief from 2016 to 2018.
The police general-turned-senator has been included as Duterte’s co-respondent in the complaint for crimes against humanity filed in the ICC by the relatives of some drug war victims.
“I thought he was already interfering with our work as senators,” Dela Rosa said.
“That’s why I told him, ‘You know your honor, if you know your history, we were conquered, ruled and enslaved by the Spaniards for more than 300 years. And now that we have gained our freedom, we expect other countries to respect our sovereignty,’” he said.
Tolentino, however, downplayed the incident, saying Dela Rosa might have misunderstood Urban’s remarks since he spoke through an interpreter.
“No voices were raised. I have to correct that. We had a good dialogue,” Tolentino said in a separate press briefing.
“For me, this has been a fruitful dialogue between the European Union’s subcommittee on human rights. We discussed a lot of issues concerning the entire universe of human rights issues,” he said.
Neumann, who headed the EU delegation, echoed Tolentino’s remarks as she expressed gratitude to the senators for accommodating them.
“We had a very fruitful meeting… As you are all aware, the relations between the European Union and the Philippines has always been a very close one,” Neumann said.
“As you are all aware, the EU has been quite worried about the war on drugs and the extrajudicial killings happening in the past. We are also very relieved to hear that right now, the Philippines is working more toward rehabilitation and prevention,” Neumann added.