Bato dela Rosa admitted in an interview with Inquirer that he initially had no plans of running for president in the 2022 elections last October 8, Friday.
He said that he was surprised to be called to Sofitel to file for the COC two hours before the end of the COC filing period.
“‘Wala na tayong ibang makitang puwedeng magpapatuloy sa legacy ni President Duterte kundi ikaw. ‘Yong laban natin sa droga, criminality, corruption, insurgency, Lahat-lahat ikaw ang magpapatuloy,'” dela Rosa recalls on the order given by PDP-laban faction leader Alfonso Cusi.
Bato Dela Rosa as “Nuisance Candidate”
Many Filipinos speculate that Dela Rosa is a “placeholder” for the position of PDP-Laban’s standard bearer, and raise that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will run for instead. This can be chalked up to the statements he has made, saying on multiple occasions that he openly welcomes Sara Duterte to run in his place.
“Baka sabihin nila na aking pagfile ng candidacy ay biro biro lang, hindi po ito biro. Seryoso po itong bagay. As I have said, mahirap man magkunwari pero we are still awaiting the final decision kung talagang gustong tumakbo ni Inday Sara, I am open, I am willing to give way to her,” dela Rosa said in an interview with DWIZ.
However, Duterte-Carpio has already expressed that she currently has no desire to run for presidency, and instead wants to be reelected for her third term as mayor of Davao City.
Dela Rosa also expressed that he was “open to all possible changes”, and that he was praying that Duterte-Carpio will change her mind about running for president because the future of the country is at stake.
If proven true, other presidential candidates can file a petition against him to be declared as a “nuisance candidate”, which under the Omnibus Election defines as someone who has filed a certificate of candidacy with the intent of putting the election process “in mockery” or without a bona fide intent to run for office.
Election lawyer, Atty. Romulo Macalintal, said that Dela Rosa’s statements can be used as evidence to support the petition filing.
“[If Dela Rosa] do[es] not have a bona fide intention to run, you are reserving that position for another person so under the law, he can be declared as a nuisance candidate,” Atty. Macalintal stated.
Atty. Macalintal furthers that if Dela Rosa is declared as a nuisance candidate, “it is as if no COC was filed and therefore there could be no substitution,” which simply means that Duterte-Carpio cannot run in his place if this is what PDP-Laban’s faction is planning for their 2022 standard bearer.
Continuing Duterte’s Legacy
As the primary orchestrator of the Oplan Tokhang, Dela Rosa has plans to implement Duterte’s war on drugs, called “Oplan Tokhang 2,” a continuation of the national law enforcement project that was originally done to neutralize drug traffickers and stop drug addicts.
According to a study done by the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) in 2020, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported that police have arrested more than 330,000 suspected drug users and 5,526 drug suspects were killed from the initial Oplan Tokhang program, not including the thousands more victims killed by unidentified gunmen. Domestic human rights groups estimate that the true death toll of the Duterte regime has reached up to 27,000 to 30,000 victims.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) also opened an investigation for the regime’s war on drugs since the court announced that there was “reasonable basis” to proceed with the probe as they said that “the crime against humanity of murder appears to have been committed, and that potential case(s) arising from such investigation appear to fall within the Court’s jurisdiction”.
The chief of the Department of Justice (DOJ) also promised to reveal the findings of the probe to the public, while presidential spokesperson Harry Roque denied the cooperation of the government with the ICC.
Bayan Muna representative Carlos Zarate asserts the disclosure of DOJ’s findings must include the investigation on policemen confirmed to be involved in the killings. He furthers that the DOJ’s full report be submitted to the Congress.
Current candidates have until November 15 to withdraw from their candidacy and be replaced by a substitute contestant. This also means that current candidates can still file a petition against a “nuisance candidate” at least five days before the last day for filing of COCs.
Senator Sherwin Gatchallian also recently filed Senate Bill 726 which sought to amend the Omnibus Election code and fine P50,000 to any person who has proven to put the election process in mockery or disrepute. The bill also considered nuisance candidates as those who file “to obtain money, profit, or any other consideration.”
Featured image courtesy ofRappler
