Bato steals Digong’s thunder

GRAVE MATTERS President Duterte and Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa put their heads together during a meeting at Malacañang. MALACAÑANG PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—Like the supporting actor who upstages the lead, “Bato” steals the show from “The Punisher.”

But President Duterte does not mind that his trusted “fair-haired” boy, Philippine National Police chief, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, is outshining him with his recent antics in dealing with the narcotics trade.

Speaking at a military camp here on Friday night, the President assured Dela Rosa that he has his back in taking on narcotraffickers.

“Bato has become better than me in showing off. [He said,] ‘Come on. Pull out your gun.’ That’s my style,” Mr. Duterte said at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Eastern Mindanao Command at Naval Station Felix Apolinario in Barangay Panacan.

“He really copied it. Now, I could not do it anymore. My role is now limited,” he said, and his audience broke into chuckles.

Mr. Duterte has earned the moniker “The Punisher” for endorsing the killing of criminals when he served as mayor of this city for more than two decades.

The Chief Executive spoke highly of Dela Rosa, a native of Davao del Sur who was first assigned in Davao City as a young second lieutenant when Mr. Duterte was appointed vice mayor by President Corazon Aquino in 1986.

Godfather on guard

“Bato has my support. He has been around,” the President said. “I was his godfather when he married many years ago. He was only a second lieutenant here. He earned his force here in Davao City and here in Mindanao. And the guy, for all of his faults, is simply loyal to the Republic of the Philippines, not to me.

“As I’ve been saying to everybody, do not nurture loyalty to me. I do not need it. You nurture the love of the country and then you are ready to die for it,” he said.

Dela Rosa, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, has become an overnight celebrity for his profanity-laced remarks typical of his patron.

The stocky, bald-headed chief of the 160,000-strong police force also gained instant fame for showing the lighter side of his personality when he guested in several television shows to promote the Duterte administration’s drug campaign.

‘Only human’

But he earned the ire of some netizens for promoting vigilantism when he told a group of drug dependents who yielded to the police in Bacolod City on Thursday to kill the drug lords and torch their houses.

“You know who are drug lords here. Go to their houses, douse it with gasoline and light it up, show them your anger,” Dela Rosa said, in classic Duterte fashion.

Unlike the President, Dela Rosa was quick to admit his fault and issued a public apology for uttering “something undesirable.”

“I said that because I felt bad. I was angry when I saw how the pushers and users (who surrendered) looked like zombies,” the PNP chief said.

“I am sorry if I said something undesirable. I am only human who gets angry,” he said.

In his speech in Iloilo City on Friday, he urged policemen to pursue the war against illegal drugs “within the (bounds) of the law and (respecting) human rights.”

Ready to kill

But in the same speech he also challenged the policemen to be ready to kill in the fight against illegal drugs.

“Are you ready to die? But first of all, before dying, are you willing to kill? This is what is important,” he said.

At about the same time he was delivering his speech, police gunned down a suspected drug pusher in Pavia town in Iloilo.

Another suspected pusher was also gunned down in Iloilo City on Thursday evening just hours before Dela Rosa’s visit.

Policemen shot dead Welner Gomez about 10:50 a.m. on Friday during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Jibao-an in Pavia town after he allegedly fired at agents from a composite team from the municipal, provisional and regional police offices.

Gomez was taken to a hospital but was declared dead on arrival by doctors.

Police recovered a .45 cal. pistol and sachets of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu.”

Four companions of Gomez were arrested. They were identified as Francis Al Tijam, Mary Grace Padernal, Yannah Gabio and Lester Lope.

 ‘High-value target’

Gomez was considered a “high-value target” and was allegedly a member of the Prevendido drug group, according to a report of the Police Regional Office 6.

Just 13 hours earlier, about 9:30 p.m., policemen gunned down Elpidio Geroy on Jereos Street in La Paz District in Iloilo City.

Geroy, a former convict, allegedly fought back in a buy-bust operation. Police arrested his companion Kristoffer Paredes.

Police said a .45-caliber pistol and suspected illegal drugs were recovered from Geroy.

Mr. Duterte reiterated that the operations against illegal drugs would “remain relentless” in the face of local and international condemnation.

“It will be sustained and for the information of everybody, including the United Nations, I take full legal and official, even private, liability,” the President said.

He said the deaths were necessary in the war against illegal drugs. “You cannot wage a war without killing and I simply do not take it as a punitive police action.” With reports from Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas; and Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao/TVJ

RELATED STORIES

Bato: Iloilo trader is drug lord ‘Dragon’

Bato relieves Antipolo cops tagged in drug trade

Bato lashes out at cops involved in illegal drug trade