Bato tracker teams mobilized

MANILA, Philippines — Dedicated teams from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are hunting down Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a day after the Department of Justice (DOJ) declared that the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is already enforceable.

NBI Director Melvin Matibag said yesterday that there’s “no reading between the lines” in the DOJ’s instructions.

“If we see him, we’ll arrest him,” Matibag said at a press briefing. “We’re looking for him now.”

The DOJ’s directive follows the Supreme Court’s denial of Dela Rosa’s petition for a temporary restraining order and status quo ante order regarding the ICC warrant.

Matibag said if NBI agents managed to capture the senator, he would be turned over to the DOJ. It would then be the agency’s call whether to fly him to The Hague, Netherlands, where the ICC is headquartered.

Last year, when former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on the basis of an Interpol diffusion notice requested by the ICC, he was put on a plane and flown to The Hague via the Middle East.

Matibag acknowledged the challenges in arresting Dela Rosa, who has gone into hiding again since leaving the Senate premises in the wee hours of May 14.

“The challenge is he’s from law enforcement, so he knows how law enforcement thinks and moves. But of course… you can never escape the long arm of the law, so he will eventually be located. It also goes to the other fugitives from justice,” he said.

Matibag also disputed the pronouncement of Dela Rosa’s lawyer, Jimmy Bondoc, who said in a now-viral television interview that a lawyer could serve a warrant to his client instead of authorities.

“The warrant should be served personally. That is under the rules of court,” he stressed.

Matibag appealed to Dela Rosa once again: “It’s better to surrender.”

The NBI also reiterated full cooperation with the investigation into the Senate shooting on May 13, which some quarters criticized as being used as a smokescreen to slip out Dela Rosa from the Senate’s protective custody and allow him to hide again.

The agency said NBI personnel who participated in the operation had already given sworn statements to the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. It also granted authorities all available video recordings, radio communications and other relevant materials from May 11 to 13.

‘Surrender peacefully’

After the Philippine National Police deployed tracker teams to arrest Dela Rosa, PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. yesterday urged the senator to just surrender peacefully instead of playing cat and mouse with law enforcement authorities.

“He became a four-star general and became the chief of the PNP and he knows the process,” Nartatez told reporters in an interview at Camp Crame. “If he can surrender, why not? Yield himself and that is the most peaceful and the most ideal.”

On the issue of Dela Rosa’s earlier request to be placed under the PNP’s protective custody, Nartatez said they are open to such an arrangement.

He assured the senator that police officers will ensure that his rights are observed.

“Seeking protective custody, meaning that it’s surrender. If by all peaceful means he will surrender, yield himself, much better,” he said.

CIDG director Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico II said Dela Rosa is still in the country, based on the latest information from their intelligence operatives, but he declined to give details. — Emmanuel Tupas, Janvic Mateo, Ghio Ong