Senator Robin Padilla has confirmed he allowed fellow senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to ride in his vehicle when he left the Senate building in the early morning hours of May 14, but said he only brought him as far as Makati City and had no knowledge of his movements afterward.
Dela Rosa had no vehicle of his own that night, Padilla explained in an interview on Net25’s “Sa Ganang Mamamayan” on Friday. The senator had been dropped off at the Senate by a car belonging to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, leaving him without transport when Padilla was ready to head home.
“Sen. Bato said, ‘I’ll just ride along.’ Of course I couldn’t refuse that, right? Sen. Bato didn’t have a vehicle because he was only dropped off at the Senate by a car of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano,” Padilla said in Filipino.
Padilla said he told dela Rosa he needed to leave early because his wife was already looking for him — this was roughly six hours after a shooting incident had occurred inside the Senate compound. Once they reached Makati City, dela Rosa stepped out and was picked up by his own vehicle.
The account is consistent with CCTV footage from the Senate showing both men exiting the premises at 2:30 a.m. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla had earlier told Palace reporters that Padilla’s white Toyota Fortuner was tracked heading in the direction of Makati City.
Padilla pushed back firmly on the characterization that either senator had “escaped.” He pointed out that police were visibly deployed throughout the Senate that night, both inside and outside the building, and that no one had attempted to stop them from leaving.
“How could we possibly escape? There were so many police inside and outside the Senate, and there were CCTV cameras too. No one even stopped us,” he said in Filipino.
He also rejected the label of “fugitive” being applied to dela Rosa, framing it as a matter of national sovereignty and due process.
“For me, he is not a fugitive. I cannot accept that we would just call him that simply because a foreigner said so. We also need to respect our own processes as a country,” Padilla said in Filipino.
Adding to his argument, Padilla said both Remulla and Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez had told dela Rosa directly that their presence at the Senate that evening was not to effect an arrest.
“Secretary Jonvic said, ‘I’m not here to arrest you, my friend; I’m here to secure the area,'” Padilla recounted, speaking mostly in Filipino.
The Department of Justice announced on Thursday that the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against dela Rosa is now enforceable, while Malacañang pledged that legal action would be taken in accordance with the law.
