Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Friday responded to criticisms over his attendance in a concert amid the ongoing investigation on the kidnapping and murder of a South Korean executive inside the PNP headquarters.
“Matagal nang patay ang biktima noong nanood ako ng concert. Mabuhay ba ang Koreano kung hindi ako manood?” Dela Rosa said.
(The victim was already dead when I watched the concert. Will he be alive if I did not attend?)
Radyo Inquirer 990 earlier reported that Dela Rosa was seen along the front rows of Bryan Adams’ concert in Manila on Thursday, just a few hours after he learned that the slain Korean businessman, Jee Ick-joo, was killed inside the national police headquarters, few meters away from his office.
After the reports emerged about the venue where the killing took place, #BatoResign trended on Twitter.
House Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez on Friday called for the resignation of Dela Rosa “to save President Rodrigo Duterte from further embarrassment and restore respect to the Office of the PNP Chief.”
“General Dela Rosa seems more interested in having a showbiz career and in landing on society pages of newspapers” where he is shown “doing mundane things like singing videoke and watching concerts,” Alvarez said.
Del Rosa finds the calls for him to resign “cruel,” and said that he could only leave his post if he would succeed in declaring the Philippines a drug-free country.
But he took responsibility for Jee’s kidnap for ransom allegedly committed by a group of PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group cops.
“Na-solve naman ang kaso. Nahuli na iyong mastermind. Identified na iyong iba na hindi pa nahuli at pinaghahanap na natin,” Dela Rosa said.
(The case is already solved. The mastermind was already caught and we already identified others involved and we are currently looking for them.) CDG
