Robredo twits PNP chief on ambition remark

FIGURE PLAY PO1 Magalang and PO1 Matapat,mascots of PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa, entertain children at Camp Crame in Quezon City. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Presidential ambitions? Why, who has mascots and standees in shopping malls?

Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday said she found it funny that the Philippine National Police chief, Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, was asking her to set aside her supposed presidential ambitions.

“I found the statement funny. I was joking, the general will know I have such ambitions if I have a mascot and standees in the shopping malls, too,” Robredo told reporters in Filipino.

Don’t want to be President

She clarified that she had no desire to be President, saying she was too busy with her work to even think of the next election.

“As long as I have no mascots and standees in the malls, it means I don’t have such ambitions. We need more time to work to think about the next election,” Robredo said on the sidelines of an event commemorating the first anniversary of her office’s Angat Buhay antipoverty program.

Puppet show, comic book

Dela Rosa unveiled in August last year his “PO1 (Police Officer 1) Bato” mascot performing dance moves, along with a puppet show featuring him and President Duterte and a comic book titled “Itaga Mo sa Bato (Cast It In Stone).”

Later, Metro Manila police districts began putting up standees of Dela Rosa’s image in shopping malls, and for last year’s Halloween celebration, the PNP headquarters in Quezon City even had a version that portrayed him as Frankenstein’s monster.

Senate race?

On Monday, speaking at a press briefing and referring to Robredo, the PNP chief said: “I wish she would help the President. She will have her time after this… If she wants to be President [after], we will support her, but she should let this administration finish first so the President’s plans would be completed.”

Dela Rosa played down, without ruling out, the possibility of him running for senator in the 2019 midterm elections, since he would retire from the police service on his 56th birthday on Jan. 21, 2018.

“If I’m given another job, I cannot turn down the [offer of the] President, because I have a huge amount of gratitude for him,” he said. “For now, I’m not thinking of it. Police first before politics. Later, let’s see when I retire.”

Dela Rosa’s appeal for Robredo to cooperate with Mr. Duterte comes amid her critical stance on the President’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs and various political issues.