Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla has conceded that lapses by law enforcement allowed Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa to evade an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.
Taking full accountability for the failed operation, Remulla acknowledged that authorities slipped up in monitoring and securing the lawmaker amid a chaotic environment.
“That was the haze in the fog of war when everything was going on. I think we were remiss in that,’’ Remulla said.
The Interior chief stated that the Philippine National Police (PNP), an agency overseen by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), should have been far more alert in tracking the senator’s whereabouts.
“I should have given better instructions on what to do,’’ he added.
Law enforcement missed their chance to apprehend Dela Rosa when he unexpectedly showed up at the Senate on May 11, coinciding with the ICC’s public unsealing of his warrant.
The senator was immediately granted protective custody and later escalated the matter to the Supreme Court to contest the legality of the international warrant.
Remulla explained that a shooting incident at the Senate compound created a distraction, which Dela Rosa used to slip away undetected during the early hours of May 14. At the time, the DILG chief was preoccupied with managing the immediate security crisis at the building.
Furthermore, Remulla pointed out that Dela Rosa was treated as a “no-touch personality” during that window because his legal team had an active application for a temporary restraining order to block the arrest.
Moving forward, the DILG chief disclosed that the government is weighing whether to put up a cash reward for Dela Rosa’s capture, adding that intelligence suggests the senator is still inside the country.