The Akbayan Party-list strongly condemned reports that Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa was allowed to leave the Senate after the mayhem that had erupted in its halls last night, laying the blame on the Senate leadership for “aiding and abetting” a fugitive, it said on Thursday.
“If reports of dela Rosa leaving the Senate are true, the blame rests squarely on the Senate leadership. They did not merely obstruct justice, they aided and abetted a fugitive, sheltered him, and ultimately provided the opportunity for his departure,” it said in a statement.
It said the facts were “clear”: Dela Rosa had entered the Senate premises in Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s own vehicle, and Cayetano had failed—”whether by design or sheer incompetence”—to preempt the chaos necessary to distract from Dela Rosa’s allegedly covert departure.
“Cayetano disgraced the Senate. He is complicit in the continued evasion of justice by a fugitive wanted under an ICC (International Criminal Court) warrant,” the party-list declared.
The group also slammed the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for a “humiliating display of weakness and incompetence” over their failure to serve the ICC arrest warrant against Dela Rosa and maintain order in the Senate.
“The PNP and DILG have become a national embarrassment. Their failure to apprehend a fugitive cornered inside the Senate is utterly unacceptable. Either they were asleep at the wheel or their incompetence was by design. In either case, their failure allowed dela Rosa to continue to evade accountability and continue making a mockery of our laws,” Akbayan said.
Moreover, the progressive group said that Dela Rosa’s purported departure and the shooting incident uncovered a “deep dysfunction” within the country’s political system, “severely eroding” public trust.
They urged the public to call for a new Senate leadership that would observe the rule of law, hold the accused accountable, and convene at the soonest possible time for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
“The Filipino people deserve a Senate that stands for democracy, not a Cayetano-led Senate that shelters fugitives, protects the powerful, and descends into chaos at the first sign of accountability,” the group said.
On Wednesday evening, gunshots were heard from within the Senate building, shortly after which Dela Rosa allegedly slipped away.
