Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. Photo from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald dela Rosa has assured the House of Representatives that he will attend its hearings when he is invited, but only by the time he is no longer a senator so that he will not break inter-parliamentary tradition.
Dela Rosa is one of the resource persons invited by the House quad committee probing the drug war due to his role as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief when the Duterte administration implemented the anti-narcotics campaign.
During the Senate blue ribbon committee’s hearing on Monday about the Duterte administration’s drug war, Dela Rosa said he would have taken advantage of the opportunity to defend himself at the House hearings if he was greedy.
“Mr. President, if I am a selfish person, if I am greedy, as early as the first invitation for me to attend, I will be there already to clear myself. But because I am a member of the Senate, I have to protect the tradition that is being observed by this institution,” he explained.
“That’s why they should just wait for it, Mr. President, by the time that I am no longer a senator, I will be there every day, if they want I can stay within their compound. But as I am still a senator, please, I hope they respect our parliamentary courtesy,” he added in Filipino.
According to Dela Rosa, he does not want to set a precedent where senators invited by the House would just attend immediately and disregard the inter-parliamentary courtesy.
“My position on this, too, has remained the same: I do not wish to be the first to break our tradition of inter-parliamentary courtesy. If our counterparts in the lower House do not exercise inter-parliamentary courtesy, this humble representation does. But most importantly, I do not wish to be a ‘guest’ of their gag show,” he said.
“I don’t want to set a precedent, Mr. President, that the time will come, in the future, that all senators pissed by having their names dragged and implicated in investigations done by the other House, will just go there and be unable to work or craft any legislation,” he added.
Dela Rosa also assured the Senate panel that he was not only present as an official of the committee, but also as a resource person on the drug war.
His name was mentioned several times during the House quad committee hearings. One of the issues raised against Dela Rosa was the testimony of Kerwin Espinosa, the confessed drug lord and the son of slain Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.
During the quad committee hearing last October 11, Kerwin claimed that Dela Rosa ordered him in 2016 to implicate Peter Lim and former senator Leila de Lima as involved in the illegal drug trade, right after his father was killed.
Kerwin said that when he returned to the Philippines from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on November 17, 2016 — days after Espinosa Sr.’s death — Dela Rosa fetched him from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and they boarded a bullet-proof vehicle.
READ: Dela Rosa ordered me to implicate de Lima in drug trade – Kerwin Espinosa
Espinosa said when they were in the vehicle, Dela Rosa asked him to implicate Lim and de Lima, warning him about suffering the same fate as Espinosa Sr. if he did not follow the orders.
Dela Rosa denied Kerwin’s accusations, saying that he would punch him in the face if he saw the younger Espinosa in person.
READ: Bato: I’ll punch Kerwin Espinosa for lying about implicating de Lima
Dela Rosa was also implicated as having knowledge of the alleged rewards system in the drug war. At the quad committee hearing last October 22, former police colonel Royina Garma said she received a call from Dela Rosa’s intelligence officer, when she was head of Davao City’s Sasa Police Station.
Dela Rosa was city director of Davao City PNP at that time.
According to Garma, the call was meant to inform her that there was an impending operation in her area. Afterward, she received a P20,000 reward after a robbery suspect was killed.
READ: Garma claims DDS’ existence ‘common knowledge’ among cops