Senator Ronald Dela Rosa said the ongoing House Quad Commitee hearing, where he was being investigated over the illegal drug war and extrajudicial killings, can affect his re-election bid next year.
In an interview over DWIZ on Saturday, Dela Rosa said it depends on how people will take the alleged ‘scripted affidavits’ presented in the recent congressional hearing.
These affidavits, he said, were designed to suit the narrative of the people behind all this investigation.
“You saw the way they asked questions. All leading questions,” said Dela Rosa.
The senator was the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) when former President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the war on illegal drugs.
Dela Rosa, Duterte and Sen. Christopher Go were invited to the Quad Comm hearing on illegal drugs and extrajudicial killings, but maintained their hardline stance not to attend.
“If the public will believe them, then it will pull me down in being a candidate,” Dela Rosa said.
But, if the people are bright enough and they know the truth and the real score, it might boost his chances of getting a fresh mandate.
“Either way nga,” added Dela Rosa, who strongly denied allegations that he was a protector of illegal drugs.
As a former top police chief and policeman, he had never lifted a finger to grant any appeal or request to help if it involved drug issues.
He also slammed P/Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido’s statement before the QuadCom hearing that the PNP is the biggest crime syndicate in the Philippines.
“That’s a very sweeping, very baseless, very unfair, very uncalled for statement coming from him, who is in active service, and is still wearing the PNP uniform,” Dela Rosa said.
“Does it mean his pay from the PNP comes from a syndicate—the money he used to feed his children and send them to school?” he asked.
Furthermore, Dela Rosa clarified that ‘to kill’ was just a mere assumption or interpretation of Espenido over his order to end the drug problem in Albuera, Leyte.
He said Espenido has a problem if that was how he interpreted and assumed that his order was to kill.
“I have no specific instruction to kill, and I would never do that,” Dela Rosa said.
“He (Espenido) is a policeman. Why would he thought of immediate killings if he’ll go against a syndicate? Is that what you just know—killings?” the senator asked.
“Banggain mo (To clobber) was meant to conduct an operation to arrest. In case they (drug suspects) will put up a fight and your life is in danger, it’s natural that a policeman would defend himself,” said Dela Rosa.
In the hearings, Dela Rosa pointed out Espenido cannot even categorically say there was a specific instruction from him to kill.
“What Espenido testified was that it’s just his assumption,” Dela Rosa said.
