EDITORIAL - Bato himself woke the ombudsman up

Maybe fear it could lead to something else prompted PNP Chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa to quickly admit his trip to Las Vegas to see the Pacquiao-Vargas fight was shouldered completely by Pacquiao. The feeling was probably like, "no problem, see, I did not spend a single centavo for this, this was all complimentary as part of the boxing promotion."

Such admission, made more prominent than it should have been by the fact that Bato arrived with Pacquiao after the fight, could not have escaped the notice of the ombudsman. Had Bato chosen to stay back instead of walking with Pacquiao right into the phalanx of waiting media men, his presence, and comments would probably have caused little or no significance to merit the attention that it did.

But because he, like most Filipinos, was caught up in the moment, Bato did not realize he was actually walking to his doom by keeping step with Pacquiao. This was such a happy moment. Who would have thought he would soon be putting his foot into his mouth. But there he was, microphones thrust to his face, being asked who paid for his everything.

Immediately and quite understandably, the scenario that unfolded in Bato's clean-shaven head was that if he said he spent his own money, he might open himself up to questions about where and how he got it. The logical thing to do was to admit Pacquiao spent for everything, which was the truth anyway. And one can never go wrong with the truth, right?

Wrong. Sometimes telling the truth can get one into trouble, especially when dealing with the government. By telling the truth, Bato got caught with the hot potato. For it is illegal for people in government to accept any gift above a certain paltry amount. Apparently, there was nothing paltry about his trip's expense. In order to avoid suspicions of amassing a fortune, Bato inadvertently laid himself open to a different violation.

Again, it was a violation that was very easy to ignore. This was not the first time it happened. Pacquiao, whose rags-to-riches story probably turned him into a very generous and compassionate person, has this habit of towing even planeloads of family, friends, and supporters to his fights. What made these other episodes of generosity different was that nobody talked about the expense and who paid for them.

And it helped that none of these beneficiaries of benevolence thrust their jaws up front in the direction of the media on arrival. They just blended into the environment. But Bato, probably not used to the limelight, just couldn't help himself. Now, he is in big trouble. To be sure, one can always accuse the ombudsman of picking on such a small matter when there are bigger issues out there. But then again, Bato himself made it so prominent he left the ombudsman no choice but to bite.