Bato: Ex-President Duterte ready to face charges before PH courts anytime

Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said Monday that former President Rodrigo Duterte will face charges in connection with the drug war deaths during his administration provided that these charges are filed before Philippine courts.

Dela Rosa made such a response when asked if he believes that a prosecution of former President Duterte is possible before Philippine courts.

“Yes, yes, because our justice system is working. Kung meron mang mag-kaso, haharapin ni Presidente Duterte ‘yan, as long as the cases are being filed and tried before Filipino courts, not the courts of the puti and the itim na walang alam kung ano ang nangyayari sa ating bansa,” Dela Rosa said in an ANC interview.

(President Duterte will face charges before Philippine courts, not the courts of the whites and the blacks who have no idea what is happening in our country.)

“It should be tried by the brown people. Dapat ganun ang mangyari [That is what should happen]. Former President Duterte will face Philippine courts because being a Filipino, he is answerable to Philippine courts, not foreign courts,” he added.

The comments made by Dela Rosa, who served as chief of the Philippine National Police during the Duterte administration, was also made amid the House deliberations on House Resolutions urging the Marcos administration to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of drug war deaths during administration of former President Duterte.

One of the two Resolutions on the matter was filed by an administration lawmaker, House Deputy Majority Leader Benny Abante of Manila, though he co-authored the said House Resolution 1477 with House Minority bloc member and 1-Rider party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez.

Dela Rosa and Duterte were among 11 officials of the Duterte administration sued before the ICC in 2017 for alleged crimes against humanity due to drug war deaths, a death toll that has reached as much as 30,000 according to human rights groups.

‘Questionable’

But as far as Dela Rosa is concerned, the filing of the House Resolution is suspicious, given it was filed amid apparent disagreement between Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Duterte, and Speaker Martin Romualdez of Leyte over the House’s move to strip the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education of its proposed P650 million confidential fund in the 2024 national budget.

“The filing of the Resolution is really questionable. Why do it now na may gulo between the Vice President and the Speaker if their concern is really genuine?,” dela Rosa said.

(If their intentions were genuine, why do it now when there is conflict between the Speaker and the Vice President.)

“They just realized that they want the ICC to come in? I totally respect what they are doing due to separation of powers, but it does not mean that I agree with them,” Dela Rosa added.

GMA News Online has reached out to Abante and Speaker Romualdez for comment and will publish their comment as soon as it becomes available.

In July, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said that the Philippines is done talking with ICC and that ICC has no jurisdiction on such drug war deaths, given that the Philippines already pulled out of ICC concurrence in March 2019.

“Basta tapos na lahat ng ating pag-uusap sa ICC (We’re done talking with the ICC),” Marcos told reporters in an interview in Zamboanga Sibugay when asked for his reaction on the ICC’s push for investigation on the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs. .

“Kagaya ng sinasabi namin mula sa simula (like what I’ve said before), we will not cooperate with them in any way, or form,” he added.

“So, we continue to defend the sovereignty of the Philippines and continue to question the jurisdiction of the ICC in their investigations here in the Philippines.”

But just last week, Marcos, however, told reporters that returning to ICC fold is under study.

"There is also a question: should we return under the fold of the ICC? So that’s again under study," Marcos told reporters in an interview.

"So we'll just keep looking at it and see what our options are." — RSJ, GMA Integrated News