Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa posted a picture on social media over the weekend, cradling an infant in his arms.
“Happy to see you, my apo,” he wrote.
The birth of a child is always a happy occasion for family, and it is good that the senator has welcomed a grandchild into the world.
Unfortunately, he also used the private occasion to taunt the rest of the country who have been speculating on his whereabouts. The former police chief, who now derives an income from being a lawmaker tasked to craft laws, deliberate with his colleagues, and such similar acts, has not been showing up at work.
He has also been conspicuously absent from the proceedings of the bicameral conference committee as it reconciles the House and Senate versions of the 2026 budget. This is the first time the process is being live streamed.
Dela Rosa has not been seen for several weeks already, after word first got out that the International Criminal Court already had a warrant for his arrest for crimes against humanity. Being the chief implementor of the drug war, dela Rosa is supposedly facing the same charges as those faced by his boss, former President Rodrigo Duterte. No less than the Ombudsman, Jesus Crispin Remulla, said he had seen a soft copy of the warrant.
In recent weeks, there was speculation on his whereabouts. It was said he was in the country, and then in Pampanga, and then his lawyer said the senator was making himself unavailable because of safety concerns.
And now we see the happy grandfather.
Dela Rosa forgets that although he owes his political ascent, to a large part, to the backing of Mr. Duterte, protecting and defending his patron will only get him so far. The job he had applied for and got requires a different kind of loyalty – not to any single personality or family, but to his constituency. In the case of the Senate, his constituency is the entire country, even those who did not vote for him and those who do not share his blind subservience to anything Duterte.
Mr. Dela Rosa invoked toughness in the performance of his erstwhile job with the Philippine National Police. They vowed to rid the country of drug pushers and drug addicts, stopping at nothing to achieve their objective. But if he did believe, from Day One, that what they were doing was necessary and justified, why is he cowering now?
Unfortunately for the rest of the country, Dela Rosa’s continued refusal to go to work – which for the common Filipino would merit a firing or even a case – carries with it a cost in terms of taxpayers money. It is immaterial whether we are getting our money’s worth in terms of quality of work; more fundamentally, the question is that he could not even be bothered to show up at all.
Everyone will be happier to see Dela Rosa showing up to work, doing his job, and bravely facing the consequences of his acts and decisions.
