Hontiveros renews call for Dela Rosa to ‘face the music’

MANILA — Sen. Risa Hontiveros has renewed her call for her “mistah” Sen. Ronald dela Rosa to surrender and face the allegations against him at the International Criminal Court.

Dela Rosa has been in hiding since May of this year after the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with former President Rodrigo Duterte’s War on Drugs. 

Dela Rosa was the Philippine National Police chief under Duterte.

“Yung panawagan ko sa kanya noon, ganoon pa rin naman hanggang ngayon. Harapin ang batas kasi kami po ay mga mambabatas,” Hontiveros said on Thursday, November 5.

(My call for him then has not changed. He should face the law because we are lawmakers.)

“I’m still encouraging him to come back and face the music,” she added, saying Dela Rosa should answer to both local and international cases.

The two senators refer to each other as “mistah” — a moniker for classmates at the Philippine Military Academy — because Dela Rosa and Hontiveros’ late husband Francisco Baraquiel Jr. went to the PMA together.

Meanwhile, National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag said they might conduct operations soon to check possible hideouts based on intelligence reports.

He could not yet say if Dela Rosa is in Mindanao.

“I think with the information that we’re getting baka mas, baka malaki yung tsansa (there might be a bigger chance),” he said of the prospects of finding and arresting Dela Rosa.