Sen. Ronald “Bato Dela Rosa (L) and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (PHOTOS: Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines – As Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile spoke about “irony” and “karma,” Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa reminded him of his support during the 1986 coup d’etat against then President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr
“Every person has the right to his own opinion. Opinion niya yan,” Dela Rosa initially said in a phone patch interview on Wednesday.
“So respetuhin natin kasi matanda na yan eh. Respetuhin natin yung opinion ng mga matatanda at mga beterano,” he added.
(So let’s respect it because he’s old. We should respect the opinions of older people and veterans.)
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Enrile noted that those who allegedly committed unwarranted and violently acts of injustice and are now “drowning and gasping for justice.”
“What a pathetic and ghastly irony!” he wrote.
He ended his post with this line: “Karma!! Abra cadabra!! What a tragic miscalculation.!!!”
Enrile did not mention names in his post, and Dela Rosa would not say if he felt alluded to.
But the senator later reminded Enrile how he supported his cause against Marcos.
Enrile was Marcos’ defense minister until he led the coup d’etat in 1986.
“Basta dapat alam rin ni Senator Enrile na nung aming murang pag-iisip noon, first class cadets kami ng PMA (Philippine Military Academy), we volunteered to go down to support him during the kudeta ng 1986,” he said.
(Senator Enrile should also know that when we were young and naive, as first-class cadets of the PMA (Philippine Military Academy), we volunteered to go down to support him during the 1986 coup)
“I just want him to know that I supported him…” the senator added.
But he had no regrets, according to Dela Rosa as he still believes that Enrile and the military troops that formed the Reform the Armed Forces Movement did the right thing at that time.
Dela Rosa is facing possible arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the implementation of the previous administration’s war on drugs.
The senator was the first chief of police of then President Rodrigo Duterte, who is now detained and facing the same charges before the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands.