MANILA – Cellar-dwelling ‘Otso Diretso’ senatorial bets ganged up on former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on the government’s “war-on-drugs” during a televised debate on Saturday.
Samira Gutoc, Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III, Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, Rodolfo Alejano, Romulo Macalintal, Florin Hilbay and independent bet Neri Colmenares took turns in throwing jabs on dela Rosa during a debate held at University of Santo Tomas quadricentennial pavilion in Manila.
Gutoc, a former member of Bangsamoro Transition Committee, became aggressive among the opposition bets when she confronted dela Rosa of putting first the killings instead of strengthening the pillars of the justice system.
“Sir Bato, ‘yung drug prevention problem po ba natin nabigyan po ba ng budget ‘yung ating mga barangay anti-drug councils?” Gutoc said.
“Nauna tayo sir sa killing before prevention so ang aking problema sir, before ka makisawsaw sa war-on-drugs, sawsawan mo muna ‘yung strengthening the pillars of the justice system,” she added.
Dela Rosa lost his cool following the tirade of Gutoc and challenged the latter to personally respond in an actual war with an armed drug pusher resisting arrest.
“Alam niyo madaling sabihin ang ganyan, hindi kayo ang nakaharap sa adik na sira-ulo. Kung ikaw ang pulis na nakipagbarilan sa mga adik, ano kaya ang pakiramdam mo?” dela Rosa said. “You have to preserve yourself. Kailangan depensahan mo sarili mo,” he added.
Dela Rosa stressed “hindi tayo puwedeng mag war-on-drugs na walang patayan. Anong klaseng pag-iisip ‘yan? Magpapabaril ka na lang sa mga adik?”
“Kung hindi tayo nag war-on-drugs baka lahat ng kabataan ngayon mga zombies na naglalakad sa kalsada, sira-ulo na,” he added.
Also getting into dela Rosa’s nerves was Hilbay, who declared the administration’s anti-drugs campaign as a failure.
“Atty. Hilbay, how dare you say the war-on-drugs is a failure? Ang dami naming nagpakamatay sa giyerang ito failure pa rin?” the former PNP chief said.
“How can you explain a survey which showed 66 percent of Filipinos believed the number of drug addicts in their area has gone down due to the drug war?” added dela Rosa. /PN
