MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Wednesday accused allies of Vice President Sara Duterte of spreading speculation that fugitive Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa had been arrested, saying the reports appeared intended to divert attention from the vice president’s impeachment trial.
Palace press officer Claire Castro said the timing of social media posts suggesting that Dela Rosa had been arrested was an apparent attempt to shift public attention away from Commission on Audit findings on Duterte’s use of confidential funds.
“The motive behind this diversionary tactic by Vice President Sara Duterte’s allies is clear,” Castro said in a message to reporters.
The speculation began Tuesday night after Dela Rosa’s lawyer, Jimmy Bondoc, posted a cryptic message warning supporters that “bad news is coming” and asking them to pray that the information was not true.
Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque later posted another message suggesting that someone had betrayed Dela Rosa.
The posts fueled speculation that Dela Rosa had been arrested under a warrant from the International Criminal Court over his alleged role in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Government officials, however, denied that Dela Rosa had been arrested.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Wednesday that authorities had coordinated with the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and other law enforcement agencies and found no indication that Dela Rosa had been taken into custody.
“That’s not true,” Remulla told reporters. “Bato is still being hunted down.”
Department of Justice spokesperson Polo Martinez and National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag also said they had received no confirmation of Dela Rosa’s arrest.
Matibag said authorities still believe the senator is in the Philippines.
Dela Rosa went into hiding in November before briefly appearing at the Senate and disappearing again in May. Authorities have been trying to serve him an ICC arrest warrant.
The senator is among those identified as alleged co-perpetrators in the crimes against humanity case filed against former President Rodrigo Duterte before the ICC. Dela Rosa served as Philippine National Police chief from 2016 to 2018 under Duterte.
The arrest rumors emerged hours after former Commission on Audit auditor Roderick Wamil testified for a second day before the Senate impeachment court about the documentation of confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
Wamil testified that government auditing rules create a presumption that an accountable officer used confidential funds for personal benefit when the officer fails to properly liquidate the money.
Castro said the timing of the social media posts appeared connected to the testimony concerning Duterte’s confidential fund expenditures.
She said the posts sought to divert attention from COA findings that millions of pesos in confidential fund expenditures from Duterte’s offices lacked supporting documents.