Bato 'totally fine' with call for ex-PNP chiefs to clarify role in Duterte's drug war

Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa on Monday said he is "totally fine" with clarifying his role in the Duterte administration's war on drugs.

The lawmaker made the statement after Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Rommel Marbil called on his predecessors to clarify their involvement in the past administration's campaign against illegal drugs.

"That is totally fine with me," Dela Rosa said in a Viber message to reporters.

"He is the current [Chief] PNP, he can initiate his own fact finding effort since the PNP has been at the receiving end in the issue at hand," the former PNP chief-turned-senator added.

In a text message to GMA News Online, former PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar said that he did not receive any order regarding the reward system.

Marbil's call came on the heels of retired police colonel Royina Garma's claim of a payment and rewards system for killing drug suspects.

Garma earlier revealed that Duterte asked her to look for an officer who would implement the Davao model of the war on drugs on a national scale, a system where one is rewarded up to P1 million for killing drug suspects.

In her affidavit, Garma claimed Senator Christopher "Bong" Go and former National Police Commission commissioner Edilberto Leonardo were among those involved in the implementation of the campaign.

Leonardo served as commander of the Manila Police District Moriones Station in 2017 during Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs.

Go, over the weekend, said Garma’s claims were ‘unsubstantiated,” as he denied the “reward system” and dismissed claims that he was involved in handling the money for it.

According to human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, more than 20,000 people were killed in the drug war based on the 2017 year-end accomplishment report of the Duterte administration.

Government records show that there were at least 6,200 drug suspects killed in police operations from June 2016 to November 2021, but several human rights groups have refuted this and say that the number may have reached as much as 30,000 due to unreported related killings.

During Duterte’s term in 2019, the Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute or the treaty that established the ICC, after the tribunal started a probe into his drug war.

To recall, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in January 2023 authorized the reopening of an inquiry into Duterte’s war on drugs.

The ICC Appeals Chamber in July 2023 also denied the government’s plea against the resumption of the inquiry, prompting numerous government officials to speak against continued engagement with the ICC.—AOL, GMA Integrated News