FILIPINOS — and especially the Senate — should be outraged by Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla’s announcement of a staggering P50-million bounty for the “dead-or-alive” capture of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
I say a “dead or alive” bounty since Remulla, in effect, circulated, in the manner of Wild West posters, such a “Wanted Dead or Alive” announcement by declaring that the senator was “armed and dangerous.” What bounty hunter or police officer would be so stupid as to try to handcuff an “armed and dangerous” person, and deliver him to Remulla? It is also, in essence, an open contract for dela Rosa’s murder.
The only explanation for Remulla’s atrocious order is that the impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte is expected to end next month, or at the latest in December, with the case obviously having imploded. Has the Marcos administration ordered the interior secretary to take out the senator, who would surely vote Sara innocent, so that two-thirds of 23 would be reduced from 16 to just 15?
The Supreme Court is likely to rule the number of sitting senators who would vote on the judgment to be 24, to include even Senators Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada, who are in jail, and dela Rosa, who is a fugitive. This is because the Constitution clearly states all senators should vote to decide on an impeachment case, not just the senators present.
However, the number can be reduced if a senator or senators no longer are senators — which would be the case if dela Rosa is killed as a result of Remulla’s wanted-dead-or-alive order. I urge Remulla, a friend with whom we’ve shared a meal with a few times: Filipinos will forget Marcos’ sordid impeachment plot. They will never forget, though, that you in effect ordered dela Rosa killed just to convict Sara Duterte. Can you stand front-page newspaper photos of de la Rosa dead, his body mangled with bullets?
Remulla sadly has even prepared the public’s mind for dela Rosa’s killing by bounty hunters. On Oct. 20, he claimed that forcibly arresting Senator dela Rosa in Mindanao could result in as many as 10,000 deaths. That, of course, is a huge exaggeration: the so-called Marawi siege in 2017, when government troops attempted to arrest an Abu Sayyaf leader, with the IS-aligned Matute group protecting him, lasted five months. The casualties: just 1,230.
Three days after Remulla got that message on the front pages, he announced the P50-million bounty, which he implied would save 10,000 lives.
What has become of our country? The head of a department of the executive branch issues a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” announcement against a senator of the Republic voted into office by 22 million Filipinos?
Atrocious
What makes Remulla’s order so atrocious is that the “warrant of arrest” was issued by the International Criminal Court, a foreign court which the Philippines no longer recognizes, as the country withdrew from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established it, in 2018, with the country formally informing the United Nations of its withdrawal. Remulla hasn’t even made public the warrant of arrest against dela Rosa issued by a local court — if there is one.
Remulla claimed the bounty money would come from the intelligence funds of the DILG and the Philippine National Police. Yet no specific DILG memorandum circular authorizing the reward, Philippine judicial arrest warrant, or documentary explanation of the amount has been publicly identified.
Consider the comparison. Remulla offered P20 million for the capture of gambling businessman Charlie “Atong” Ang, who faces Philippine court warrants arising from the killing of 10 cockfighting enthusiasts. A whistleblower has even accused Ang of involvement in the killing of more than 100 people, although the formally filed charges concern fewer alleged victims.
Why is de la Rosa’s capture worth two and a half times the reward for Ang? What objective criteria determined the amount? Was there a formal assessment of the danger supposedly posed by the senator, the difficulty of locating him, or the seriousness of the allegations? Or was P50 million selected principally for its political impact, with its huge amount intended to encourage many killers?
Ang has been alleged to have been a “gambling lord” all his working life. Dela Rosa served the country for 32 years as a police officer and as chief of the Philippine National Police for two years. Doesn’t this count for anything at all, that Remulla could issue an open murder contract on him? Remulla even went personal and claimed dela Rosa was a coward by refusing to surrender to him. Is it cowardice to defy an illegal arrest order by a foreign court?
Court
A Philippine court issued a warrant of arrest against former congressman Zaldy Co, alleging that he is the mastermind and executioner of the mammoth ghost flood-control scam that stole billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money. Co publicly released videos of him abroad. But even on the small chance that he actually returned to the Philippines, why hasn’t Remulla ordered a bounty for his arrest? Wouldn’t Co be likely surrounded by a phalanx of highly paid bodyguards, that he could really be described as “armed and dangerous”?
Remulla’s P50-million bounty is unprecedented. Marcos Sr.’s administration offered P150,000 for the capture of Bernabe “Kumander Dante” Buscayno, the founding commander of the communist New People’s Army, and P50,000 for Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines — both of whom the Armed Forces had declared as prime enemies of the Republic.
Unlike Remulla’s announcement of a reward for the head of a senator, the bounty for the two communist leaders was documented in Department of National Defense Order No. 610. Adjusted for inflation, the P150,000 bounty on Kumander Dante would be roughly P3 million in today’s purchasing power, while the P50,000 reward for Sison would be approximately P1 million. Remulla’s P50 million is thus around 17 times the inflation-adjusted bounty on Kumander Dante and 50 times that on Sison. Remulla hasn’t even invoked the specific law and administrative issuance for his P50-million bounty on dela Rosa.
There are precedents for identifying the relevant documents. A P400,000 reward for fugitive Mark Steven Freeman was expressly associated with DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2023-185. In July 2026, the PNP reported paying P9.2 million to 21 informants and described a process involving deliberation and DILG approval.
Process
Did the P50-million reward undergo such a process? Or did Remulla one morning just receive an order from Malacañang to issue an open contract for dela Rosa’s killing, as the impeachment trial will be ending soon, and Marcos needed to reduce the number of senators likely to acquit Sara, and he jumped to implement his master’s orders without even studying whether he was authorized to do so?
Remulla claims the P50-million reward will come from the DILG and the PNP’s intelligence funds. But such rewards have to have the written approval of the president. Can Remulla disclose to the public Marcos’ written approval?
Remulla’s description of the senator as armed and dangerous is also atrocious and malicious. What evidence establishes that dela Rosa intends to attack arresting officers, resist violently or endanger the public? His former position as PNP chief cannot, by itself, establish that he poses such a threat.
The implications of Remulla’s bounty are frightening. If a Cabinet secretary can announce an enormous bounty against an elected official without promptly disclosing its legal foundation, what prevents another administration from employing similar measures — issuing what are tantamount to murder contracts against its political opponents?
The Marcos regime has weaponized the law, jailing two opposition senators — without benefit of bail — during the impeachment trial. Former congressman Mike Defensor, who assisted the Marine whistleblowers, was thrown in jail on the ridiculous charge that his contribution to Senator Marcoleta’s election campaign was plunder. Libel charges had been filed against those erstwhile whistleblowers who delivered the billions of bribe money to Marcos’ allies.
Remulla’s bounty on dela Rosa is by far the worst weaponization of the law. This is the first time in our history that an administration has issued an open contract for a sitting senator’s murder. We lose our sense of morality if we let this abomination be undertaken.
Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
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Website: www.rigobertotiglao.com
