EDITORIAL - Disorganized

Rodrigo Duterte was the test case. Ronald dela Rosa is the confirmation of the Marcos administration’s policy of recognizing proceedings in an international court that has initiated a probe, ahead of Philippine authorities, into crimes against humanity that may have been committed in the country.

This recognition is provided under Republic Act 9851, the 2009 law defining crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

RA 9851 allows the Philippines to surrender a person wanted by an international court whose proceedings have been recognized by the government by virtue of this local law, or to extradite the wanted person in case a foreign government is conducting the probe.

Now that the policy presumably has been firmed up, clear protocols must be in place and there should be no more bungling hesitation and disastrous lack of coordination among law enforcement agencies in effecting future arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.

The official hesitation and disorganization were glaringly evident in the failed attempt to capture Dela Rosa on May 13, when he surfaced from six months of hiding to cast his vote in person for a coup that installed Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president.

In a late-night address to the nation on that day, President Marcos added to the confusion by saying he had ordered the National Bureau of Investigation not to arrest Dela Rosa.

The ICC wants Dela Rosa as a “co-perpetrator” of Duterte in the crimes against humanity case the former president is facing in The Hague.

About three hours after President Marcos issued his statement, Dela Rosa hitched a ride with his fellow pro-Duterte colleague Sen. Robinhood Padilla and left the Senate premises. No one stopped the vehicle, which dropped off Dela Rosa in Makati. Naturally, Dela Rosa’s whereabouts are again unknown.

On May 20, the Supreme Court issued a ruling denying Dela Rosa’s urgent petition for a temporary restraining order on his arrest. The SC acted on a petition for a TRO filed 14 months ago, without resolving the merits of the main issue.

With the SC not stopping the arrest, but with Dela Rosa at large, the government announced that the wanted senator would be arrested if he tried to leave the country. How this can happen bears watching, considering how easy people like Alice Guo have managed to skip town.

Yesterday, Malacañang said future ICC warrants, which the National Bureau of Investigation said were expected, would be enforced immediately. This is presuming that the NBI announcement has not alerted the other co-perpetrators in the ICC case to flee.

It’s almost as if the government actually doesn’t want to catch anybody.