POLICE Chief Ronald dela Rosa will reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 in January, but President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he will be extending his term for two to three months and then appoint him head of the Bureau of Corrections.
“I need to extend the tour of duty of General dela Rosa for two to three months,” Duterte told reporters in Fort Bonifacio.
Dela Rosa said Wednesday he would be accepting his posting at Corrections after his retirement.
“Who am I to refuse the President? He is my boss ever since and he will be my boss forever,” Dela Rosa told reporters in an ambush interview at the House of Representatives.
Duterte made the announcement to extend Dela Rosa’s term on Tuesday during the Christmas party he hosted for reporters. Then Dela Rosa would be heading the Bureau of Corrections.
“Once the projects are operational, then he goes to the BuCor,” Duterte said.
He said Dela Rosa would have to confront issues involving penal colonies and prisoners involved in drugs.
An attached agency of the Department of Justice, the bureau is tasked to implement the rehabilitation and safekeeping of prisoners.
Duterte had earlier accused the Aquino administration of doing nothing to curb the drug-trafficking in the national penitentiary and Senator Leila de Lima, a former Justice secretary, of allegedly receiving money from drug convicts to finance her senatorial campaign.