IN JANUARY this year the police said they are actively tracking down former Bureau of Corrections director general Gerald Bantag and other high-profile fugitives.
Bantag stands accused of masterminding the murder of journalist Percy Lapid four long years ago.
Amid speculation that Bantag may just be in the Cordillera region, PNP chief Lieutenant General Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said that arrest operations are being conducted continuously.
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Nartatez added that the police do not rush on tips, as there are strict procedures in serving warrants of arrest.
“Of course, as I said, we have procedures for implementing warrants of arrest. It’s not as simple as receiving information that someone is in a certain place and immediately rushing in,” Nartatez told the media.
We are nearing the end of the year and the police have nothing to show for the promise to arrest Bantag and four of his co-accused also with standing warrants of arrest.
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Sen. Bato Dela Rosa is a prominent fugitive who is the subject of an international warrant of arrest.
Despite noises by his lawyers, the Supreme Court has not issued an order stopping the service of the warrant of arrest issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
As officers of the law, the police are thus obligated to serve the warrant with the same efficacy as locally issued one.
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Last week Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Dela Rosa was in Mindanao under the protection of a powerful armed group.
He said authorities negotiating his turnover. “He is in Mindanao. He is under the protection of a group we are currently initiating conversations with for his turnover to the authorities,” Remulla told the media.
The DILG chief said the police would not simply swoop down and arrest Dela Rosa without risking an armed confrontation.
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“In exchange for up to ten thousand potential deaths, I would rather negotiate first than cost the lives of Filipinos in this,” Remulla added.
The DILG chief was being poetic: “You don’t always solve problems with a hammer. Sometimes you solve things better in a more peaceful, humane way.”
Was Remulla exaggerating? Ten thousand is the population of some towns in the provinces. Even the New People’s Army is reported to be operating at a current strength of less than one thousand armed combatants.
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What is this group in Mindanao that is coddling Sen. Bato?
Its leader and members are guilty of obstruction of justice at the very least. An ICC warrant of arrest is a lawful process that the police and other authorities must carry out. No local court has struck it down as illegal.
Sen. Bato has been on the run for almost half a year after surfacing in the Senate to help install the short-lived Alan Cayetano Senate presidency.
After earning brickbats for professing helplessness in Bato’s arrest, Remulla is now floating P50 million as a reward for his capture. Will this Mindanao group now turn Judas on him?/PN
