Bato gives more details on ‘Judas’ cop

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Bato dela Rosa yesterday gave more details about the unnamed ranking police official allegedly convincing cops to testify against him in his drug war crimes case before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a dwIZ interview yesterday, Dela Rosa said the unnamed “upper classman” who betrayed him is in a powerful position under the present administration.

The unnamed official was an appointee of the late president Benigno Aquino III and was supposed to get the ax under former president Rodrigo Duterte, but got to retain his post with Dela Rosa’s help.

“So sad of my upper classman. When PRRD (Duterte) was about to remove you from your post because you are a PNoy appointee, I moved heaven and earth to dissuade him,” Dela Rosa said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

“You finished the whole six-year term. Now, you are busy convincing PNP officers to testify against us in the ICC. God bless you, sir,” he added.

In the radio interview yesterday, Dela Rosa said he would identify the official “in the proper time.”

“I just posted that on Facebook to express my frustrations and ill feelings toward this person, whom I trusted and even helped. I wasted that trust on him as my upper classman, only for him to turn his back on me,” he said.

Dela Rosa said this schoolmate of his is of impressive record and influence that he was able to keep his post up to the administration of President Marcos. He refused to confirm if the official is part of the Cabinet.

“But it is not a question of skills. It is a question of values. I am not one to believe in one’s debt of gratitude. But his character is questionable for taking advantage of me, only to turn his back on me to be used as a pawn of the enemy,” Dela Rosa said.

Pressed for more details, Dela Rosa said the former friend is allegedly “following up” on police officers to pin down Dela Rosa in the crimes against humanity case against him as the top drug war enforcer of Duterte.

The brutal narcotics crackdown led by the police in the previous administration killed thousands of mostly poor drug users.

Dela Rosa alleged there is also a “bagman” who carries the cash to entice cops to testify against him. He also did not name the alleged financier.

“He won’t be able to convince cops against me if he is not in a position of power. The financier is also a prominent person,” Dela Rosa said without giving any more details.

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV alleged that he has information that the ICC would order Duterte and Dela Rosa’s arrest this year. He also claimed at least 50 active and former police officers were implicated in the drug war probe.
Dela Rosa, however, is still banking on Marcos’ word of not cooperating with the ICC, even as there are signs from the legal briefer preparations of the Department of Justice that the administration seems open to rejoining the ICC.

Duterte unilaterally withdrew from the Rome Statute that created the ICC after a complaint was filed against him for his drug war.

“I have no doubt 100 percent that the President will keep his word. I grew up in a family of Marcos loyalists. I wanted to be a soldier when I saw that his father took care of the military,” Dela Rosa said, referring to the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

“I believe in the President. It is the people around him that I don’t trust anymore,” he added.