MANILA: Cuting records from the Bureau of Immigration (BI), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Melvin Matibag on Saturday (May 23) said Sen Ronald 'Bato' dela Rosa (pic) is still in the country amid the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
At the Saturday News Forum, Matibag said the NBI is coordinating with the BI in tracking the senator’s outbound travel activities.
“If you will look at the records of Bureau of Immigration, of course we are coordinating with the Bureau of Immigration and the point of entries we identified say that there are no records of his
This was corroborated by BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval in a message to Inquirer when asked if the agency monitored any of his outbound travel activities as of Saturday, May 23.
Matibag acknowledged the country’s entry and exit points, where many personalities could escape the country without their activities being monitored. However, he said his agency receives tips every day indicating that dela Rosa has not yet left the country.
After being placed under the Senate custody after being absent for six months, he slipped out of the Senate premises on early May 14 after chaos ensued due to gunshots being recorded in the premises last May 13.
Matibag also said that a dedicated team has been formed to locate Dela Rosa after the Department of Justice ordered the NBI and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to arrest the senator. This came after the Supreme Court denied dela Rosa’s request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the government from arresting him.
Last May 11, the ICC publicly confirmed the arrest warrant against him. The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I said it found reasonable grounds to believe that dela Rosa was individually responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder under article 7(1)(a) of the Rome Statute, which was committed between July 3, 2016 and the end of April 2018, during which no less than 32 persons were killed.
Matibag added that aside from the dedicated team, he instructed NBI district and regional offices to do their own monitoring within their respective areas.
Dela Rosa served as the PNP chief during the drug war campaign, which killed thousands of Filipinos. Matibag said that the senator being in law enforcement before is “one of the major concerns” in locating him now.
“So he knows how the law enforcers behave and how he will be tracked and located so for me, eventually the law will catch up on you and the law enforcers will get you, wherever you are,” Matibag said.
He once again appealed to Dela Rosa to surrender and face the law in connection with his alleged role with the drug war campaign.
“But by the looks of it, it seems that he has no plans of surrendering because he was already at the Senate but he vanished,” Matibag added. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
