A P50-MILLION reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said on Friday.
“As of today, Senator Bato will be considered ‘armed and dangerous.’ We are placing a bounty of P50 million for his capture,” Remulla said at a press briefing at Camp Crame.
The money, he said, would be drawn from the intelligence funds of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
A task force headed by Maj. Gen. Wilson Joseph Lopez, PNP Directorate for Intelligence chief, has been formed that is focused on “locating and arresting” the senator.
Remulla said dela Rosa was being protected by a well-financed armed group in Mindanao with whom the government was negotiating for his surrender.
“We have given him all the courtesy that could be afforded a senator of the Republic of the Philippines, and he has shown nothing but cowardice by going into and remaining in hiding,” Remulla said.
He said dela Rosa “mistook my gesture of negotiation as a sign of weakness." He said the gloves are now off, and it is time to to bring the fugitive senator to justice.
The P50-million bounty puts dela Rosa on top of the country’s list of most wanted criminals. Fugitive businessman Charlie “Atong” Ang comes in second.
Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr., PNP chief, said dela Rosa has been given a week to surrender.
Nartatez said those who harbors and protects dela Rosa also face legal consequences.
Dela Rosa is the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant as an indirect co-conspirator of former president Rodrigo Duterte in his bloody drug war.
Dela Rosa was Duterte’s PNP chief from 2016 to 2018, making him the main architect of the bloody drug war during Duterte’s presidency and term as Davao City mayor.
The ICC warrant against dela Rosa will turn a year old by November. The senator had not made an appearance in the Senate until he suddenly turned up last May to cast his vote in favor of making Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano the Senate president
Remulla had tried to arrest dela Rosa while he was at the Senate, but a shooting incident prevented him from doing so.
Remulla said he lost the chance to arrest the senator, because he was forced to honor a “gentleman’s agreement” with Cayetano.
Dela Rosa eventually left the Senate premises in a car accompanied by his friend and ally, Sen. Robinhood Padilla.
