EDITORIAL— Remember Bato?

The story might have been floated simply as clickbait, according to the National Bureau of Investigation, as the government denied that Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa had been caught and bundled off to The Hague.

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla also denied the story while adding that Dela Rosa was last spotted in Mindanao.

The story, however, reminded the nation that Dela Rosa has been in hiding for nearly nine months now, receiving his full monthly salary of P300,000 as a senator plus more for the maintenance of his Senate office that is reportedly packed with his relatives. He also continues to receive his monthly pension as a retired four-star police general, amounting to over P200,000.

Apart from enjoying no work with full pay, Dela Rosa has yet to face accountability for the thousands of drug suspects who were killed in the bloody crackdown on illegal drugs carried out when Rodrigo Duterte was president and earlier as Davao City mayor.

Dela Rosa, who has not denied being the architect of Oplan Tokhang, is wanted by the International Criminal Court as a “co-perpetrator” in the crimes against humanity case Duterte is facing in connection with his so-called war on drugs.

The Senate has been preoccupied with many other matters and has ignored calls to discipline Dela Rosa or at least suspend his salary and the maintenance and operating expenses of his office.

In the past nine months, Dela Rosa has surfaced only once – to personally cast the crucial vote that installed Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president last May. Cayetano now holds the record of having the second shortest-lived Senate presidency.

Dela Rosa’s appearance at the Senate set off a chaotic NBI attempt to capture him. His surfacing was also marked by an unprecedented eruption of gunfire in the Senate premises courtesy of his Philippine Military Academy classmate, who was newly installed as the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

The government believes the gunfire was meant to allow Dela Rosa to evade arrest. Pro-Duterte senators who facilitated Dela Rosa’s emergence and then return to hiding are being probed for obstruction of justice.

Last year, Dela Rosa had said he wanted to keep Duterte company in The Hague. But a year later, Dela Rosa changed his mind, saying he might not be allowed by the ICC to see Duterte.

Dela Rosa might yet get his original wish, if the government can do its job of capturing a high-value fugitive.