Jonvic Remulla: Talks ongoing for Bato dela Rosa's surrender to avert violence

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Authorities are negotiating with a group protecting embattled Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to secure his surrender and prevent a potentially violent confrontation, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said on Tuesday.

Remulla said Dela Rosa was in Mindanao under the protection of a group with which authorities were seeking to negotiate his turnover.

“He’s in Mindanao. He’s under the protection of a group we are currently initiating conversations with for his turnover to the authorities,” Remulla said at a press briefing.

The DILG chief explained that law enforcement officers could not simply move in to arrest Dela Rosa without risking a violent confrontation.

“In exchange for up to 10,000 potential deaths, I would rather negotiate first than cost the lives of Filipinos in this,” Remulla said. “You don’t always solve problems with a hammer. Sometimes you solve things better in a more peaceful, humane way.”

Remulla did not explain how he arrived at the figure or what basis he had for his estimate.

In September, Remulla again warned that an attempt to arrest Dela Rosa could turn bloody but did not elaborate on the circumstances that could lead to violence.

Dela Rosa is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court over his alleged criminal responsibility as an indirect co-perpetrator in crimes against humanity of murder. The charges cover the period from July 3, 2016, to late April 2018, during which at least 32 people were killed.

Authorities previously attempted to serve the arrest warrant on May 11, triggering a standoff and a chase inside the Senate building.

Dela Rosa was subsequently placed under the Senate’s protective custody but left the premises on May 14 and has not appeared in public since.

‘It’s my fault’

Remulla expressed regret that authorities did not immediately arrest Dela Rosa during their initial encounter, saying he had deferred to a gentleman’s agreement between the Senate and the executive branch regarding the senator’s custody.

“The only thing that held me back was the gentleman’s agreement of the Senate and the Executive, that no arrest would be made as long as he was in their custody. So we were expecting that those holding custody over him were gentlemen,” Remulla said, speaking partly in English and Filipino.

The DILG chief said the agreement’s breakdown prompted him to set aside standard protocol during the subsequent arrest of former senator Jinggoy Estrada.

“It’s my fault; I shouldn’t have complied from the start. But I am a gentleman, I honor agreements. When they broke the deal, it no longer mattered to me either,” Remulla added.

He was referring to Estrada's arrest at the Senate on June 1 amid a dispute over whether lawmakers could invoke Senate custody to prevent their arrest within the chamber’s premises.

The Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division had issued a warrant against Estrada in a non-bailable plunder case over alleged P573 million in kickbacks from flood control projects. —MCG, GMA News

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