MANILA, Philippines — Death toll can reach as high as 10,000 if authorities would force its way just to get fugitive Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Tuesday.
“Well in exchange for hanggang 10,000 pwede mamatay (could die), I would rather negotiate first than cost the lives of Filipinos in this. You don’t always solve problems with the hammer, sometimes you solve things better in a more peaceful and humane way,” Remulla rold reporters during the sidelines of the 20th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime in Makati City.
Earlier this week, Remulla revealed that Dela Rosa is in Mindanao and under the protection of a powerful, moneyed and heavily armed group.
He said he could always order a hard force to get the senator but maintained that “obstructions to the cost of body bags is not worth it.”
Despite the challenges getting the former police chief, Remulla assured the public that “we are almost there.”
“Yung mga akalang simple ang ganitong klaseng bagay, hindi po. It is a very complicated job and it involves a lot of moving parts but we are almost there,” he said.
(To those who think this kind of thing is simple, it's not. It is a very complicated job and it involves a lot of moving parts but we are almost there.)
Remulla emphasizes the stakes that come with arresting the senator by force including the money used to protect him as well as the possible scenarios that might break out as extremist groups could take advantage of the chaos.
“Yes it can be worse [if we use force] because the money is so large, anlaki ng pera eh so they are willing to protect and it might ignite similar to Marawi, extremist groups to take advantage of the situation,” Remulla said.
In a television interview, Remulla said the scenario would be the same had former President Rodrigo Duterte, prior to his arrest, been able to go back to Davao City where his family maintains strong support.
“We do not want a civil war to start because of the arrest of one man. We want to do it properly, judiciously and cleanly,” he said.
The former police chief, who is considered to be the chief architect of the Duterte administration's bloody drug war, is the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant over his role as an alleged indirect co-perpetrator in the crimes against humanity case filed against former President Rodrigo Duterte.
I dropped the ball
Remulla also expressed regret at not arresting Dela Rosa when he had the chance to get him during the Senate shooting last May.
“Kay (With) Bato, I dropped the ball. I should have arrested him in the Senate except there was an agreement back then, a gentleman’s agreement that you cannot arrest anyone in the Senate who is there in their custody,” he said.
He said it was his mistake honoring a “gentleman’s agreement” with then Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano that no senator will be arrested inside Senate grounds.
In interviews and even during his heated confrontation with Cayetano during the arrest of Senator Jinggoy Estrada, Remulla pointed out that such privilege was lost when Dela Rosa was “allowed to escape.”
“Gentleman’s agreement eh, pero di ko na gagalangin yon. Not in the sense that I will break any law but don’t use it as a shield to prevent us from enforcing the law,” Remulla said.
(It's a gentleman's agreement, sure, but I'm not going to respect that anymore. Not in the sense that I will break any law, but don't use it as a shield to prevent us from enforcing the law.)
