Dela Rosa on role in drug war: ‘Given the chance, I’d do it again’

MANILA, Philippines — If given the chance to do it all again, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said he would take the same approach in handling the war on drugs under former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Dela Rosa was the Philippine National Police chief during Duterte’s war on drugs, known as Oplan Tokhang.

When asked if he has regrets about how he handled the drug war, dela Rosa said in an interview on Thursday: “No, no regrets. If you are going to — given the chance to do it again, I will do it again. The same approach.”

“You can’t fight a war, especially against the drug personalities, by being disente (decent), by being pa-cute-cute. [There is] no way you can win the battle, you can win the war. You have to be forceful enough to send your message down the spine of these criminals,” he also said.

A Senate blue ribbon subcommittee will conduct a hearing on Duterte’s drug war next Monday, Oct 28.

READ: Dela Rosa on Senate drug war probe: ‘They can interrogate me’

Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, a former police chief of Leyte town under dela Rosa, alleged that the PNP had a reward and quota system under his helm. Dela Rosa strongly denied this.

READ: Dela Rosa blasts Espenido’s ‘scripted’ claims against him 

However, dela Rosa said he was “excited” to face Espenido during the hearing.

“Yes, yes, yes. I am excited. I am excited to para sagutin niya ‘yung mga tanong ko, (so he could answer my questions),” dela Rosa said.

Espenido, who was the former police chief of Albuera, Leyte, led an anti-drug raid on the house of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Jr., where the mayor and 14 other people were killed. Parojinog was on a Duterte “narco list” of drug lords.

Duterte was the chief architect of the bloody drug war waged during his tenure as the country’s president and as mayor of Davao City.

The drug war under his presidency claimed at least 6,000 lives, according to official government data. But human rights watchdogs and the International Criminal Court (ICC) itself estimated the death toll under Duterte’s drug war to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019 alone, as they noted that several of these were extrajudicial killings.

Duterte and dela Rosa were among the accused in the crimes against humanity complaint before the ICC.

In March 2018, Duterte declared the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute or the treaty that established the ICC.

READ: Duterte does the inevitable, declares PH withdrawal from ICC

The withdrawal took effect a year after or in March 2019.

Despite this, the ICC retained jurisdiction over alleged crimes in the Philippines — from November 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019 — while the country was still a state party.