Palace pushes back on Dela Rosa’s ‘diversionary tactic’ remark

Palace press officer Claire Castro — Photo from Presidential Communications Office

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Friday pushed back against Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s remarks about creating new issues out of old ones, pointing out that it was actually the other way around.

Reacting to Dela Rosa’s allegation that Malacañang is resurfacing the issue of his possible arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to divert attention from rumors linking First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos to the death of businessman Juan Paolo “Paowee” Tantoco, Palace press officer Claire Castro said the senator’s possible arrest has been a topic of ongoing discussion.

READ: Dela Rosa to Palace: Go ahead and arrest me, too

“First of all, the possible ICC arrest is not an old issue. From time to time, we hear that a warrant of arrest could be issued, and the ICC case itself is also not a closed matter — it remains pending before the court,” said Castro.

She further said, “To my recollection, we haven’t been bringing up old issues—unless they are related to questions being asked of us. Who is it, really, that keeps bringing up old issues, including one that, as far as I can remember, was already the subject of a hearing about a PDEA [Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency] pre-operation way back in 2012?”

The Palace official was referring to Dela Rosa leading a probe into the supposedly leaked PDEA dossiers that link certain personalities to illegal drugs and allegedly contain an authority to operate and a pre-operation report issued on March 11, 2012, and signed by former PDEA agent Jonathan Morales.

Castro also clarified that the discussion of Dela Rosa’s possible arrest at Malacañang was not a diversionary tactic but merely a straightforward response to a question regarding Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin’s interview with Japan’s Kyodo News on Wednesday.

READ: ICC has not asked for arrest of dela Rosa, ‘co-perpetrators’ – Palace

Bersamin said that Dela Rosa would receive “treatment similar to what we did to [former president Rodrigo] Duterte,” who was arrested in March following a warrant issued by the court in The Hague, the Netherlands for alleged crimes against humanity.

In response, the senator boldly challenged the Marcos administration to arrest and hand him over to the ICC, just as it did with Duterte — his former commander-in-chief during his tenure as head of the Philippine National Police in the implementation of the administration’s bloody war on drugs. /das