Nica chief, Co deny pressing PNP execs to testify in ICC

Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

The chief of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica) and a key member of the House of Representatives on Thursday denied allegations by Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa that they had pressured retired and active duty police officials to testify against him and former President Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Dela Rosa, Duterte’s first national police chief, told a group of Senate reporters on Wednesday that he had “very, very reliable information” that Speaker Martin Romualdez, Nica chief Ricardo de Leon, Ako Bicol party list Rep. Zaldy Co, the House appropriations panel chair, and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV met the police officials “to convince them to execute an affidavit implicating Duterte and me” in Duterte’s bloody drug war.

READ: ‘Bato’ willing to be interviewed by ICC prosecutors

“It seems that they really want to erase Duterte and his allies from the face of the earth. Is there any other reason why [Romualdez] would do that?” he added.

Caramat, Albayalde

Dela Rosa said De Leon and the others talked to former Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde, former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Police Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr., former National Police Commission Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, and former PNP chief intelligence officer Eleazar Mata.

“I categorically deny allegations by Sen. Bato dela Rosa that I, together with Speaker Martin Romualdez and other personalities, pressured certain officials to testify against him and former President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court,” De Leon said in a statement.

According to De Leon, he accompanied Caramat to meet Romualdez “because he wanted to express his interest to be appointed the next PNP chief.”

“During our conversation, he (Caramat) offered to disclose everything he knew about extrajudicial killings and the drug war, including the list of names targeted for killing, weekly quotas, and the payment process involved in exchange for his appointment,” he said.

President’s prerogative

But De Leon said Romualdez told them that the appointment of the PNP chief was solely the prerogative of President Marcos, “and he has no influence over such decisions.”

“The Speaker also rejected Caramat’s offer to disclose information in exchange for his appointment,” De Leon said.

De Leon also denied the allegation of Dela Rosa that he had discussed with Albayalde and Mata “to testify in the ICC.”

Co admitted meeting Caramat twice, but that it was the police official who had offered to tell all about the brutal drug war, not him or the Speaker.

“There was never any mention of testifying against anyone before the ICC,” he said, adding that Caramat’s offer to testify against Duterte and Dela Rosa was “flatly rejected” by Romualdez.

Trillanes earlier said the ICC had already talked to around 50 former and incumbent police officials regarding the crime against humanity committed by Duterte in relation to his drug war.

Dela Rosa claimed that De Leon and Trillanes had arranged the meetings with the Speaker.

Last week, Trillanes disclosed that he had asked the International Criminal Police Organization to issue a blue notice against Dela Rosa, Albayalde, Caramat, Leonardo and Mata.

“The ones who really tried to convince (Albayalde and the others) were De Leon and Trillanes,” Dela Rosa said.

Despite the Speaker’s supposed presence in all the meetings, he said the four police officials did not agree to serve as witnesses against him and Duterte.

“I’m grateful to them because they stood their ground,” the senator said of his former subordinates.

“They know what is wrong and what is right. These people are PMA (Philippine Military Academy) graduates. They know courage, integrity and loyalty in their hearts and minds,” he said.

Stab in the back

He lamented the supposed efforts to persuade the retired and active PNP officers to testify against him and Duterte. “It’s like being stabbed in the back,” he said. “The same government [saying] that we are not recognizing them (the ICC) … is doing the legwork for the ICC.”

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said in late July that the Philippine government would not stand in the way of the ICC’s investigation of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

“[The Philippines] has no legal duty to lend any assistance to the ICC prosecutor in conducting his investigation. But the Philippine government cannot stop him from proceeding any way he wants,” Guevarra said, referring to the ICC prosecutor.

Duterte has repeatedly said he would not cooperate with the ICC probe.

Asked whether it was the Speaker who had directed De Leon and Trillanes to speak with Albayalde and the others, he said: “Who else will order them?”

“Is it just coincidence that when they spoke with the four police officials, the four of them were also there?” he said, referring to Romualdez, Co, De Leon and Trillanes.