SP Gatchalian opposes gov't coordination for Bato's surrender

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Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday said government authorities should not be negotiating with the armed group that is supposedly protecting Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa in Mindanao.

This, after Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said that authorities are seeking to negotiate dela Rosa’s turnover with an unidentified group in order to prevent a potentially violent confrontation.

“Kung armed group ito, hindi naman sila authorized na magkaroon ng armas. Dapat hindi tayo nakikipag-negotiate sa kanila dahil hindi naman sila pwedeng mas armado pa kumpara sa gobyerno,” Gatchalian said in an ambush interview.

(If this is an armed group, they are not authorized to possess weapons. We shouldn’t be negotiating with them, because they certainly shouldn’t be more heavily armed than the government.)

“I don't know the details of itong grupo na ito. Pero ang unang iniisip ko is kung armado sila, ‘di naman sila authorized na magkaroon ng armas dahil gobyerno lang pwedeng mag-authorize sa kanila. Dapat hindi tayo nakikipag-negotiate dito sa grupong ito,” he added.

(I don’t know the details of this group. But my initial thought is that if they are armed and they aren’t authorized to possess weapons, since only the government can grant such authorization, then we shouldn’t be negotiating with them.)

Nevertheless, the Senate President said he understands where Remulla is coming from and will just leave the strategy to him.

Remulla earlier explained that authorities are trying to negotiate and resolve the matter in a “peaceful and humane way” to prevent loss of thousands of lives.

“In exchange for up to 10,000 potential deaths, I would rather negotiate first than cost the lives of Filipinos in this,” the DILG chief said.

He, however, did not give an explanation as to how he arrived at the figure or what basis he had for his estimate.

Malacañang’s call

Gatchalian also did not give a direct answer if he would echo the statement of Malacañang for Dela Rosa to surrender and face the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prevent bloodshed.

He said what matters is that the entire process would just be as peaceful as possible.

“Ang importante dito maging peaceful at maayos itong situation na ito. Ayaw natin na magkaroon ng insidente o ng aksidente,” Gatchalian said.

(What’s important here is that the situation will be peaceful and orderly. We don’t want any incidents or accidents to occur.)

Dela Rosa has been issued an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in relation to the drug war of former president Rodrigo Duterte, which supposedly killed thousands of people.

Duterte is already detained at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, while awaiting his crimes against humanity trial. — BAP, GMA News