Investigators are preparing legal summons for several people believed to have been in touch with Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa before he disappeared, including the lawmaker’s spouse, as authorities widen their search for the fugitive senator.
NBI official Matibag confirmed the plan during a Friday press briefing. “We are about to send subpoenas to the personalities with recent contact with Sen. Bato,” he said. Pressed afterward in an ambush interview about timing, he indicated the documents were already in motion: “We’re preparing it today.”
Nancy dela Rosa is squarely among those who will be served. “Of course, we will issue a subpoena to his wife also,” Matibag said, pointing to her own account that the senator used the chaos of the May 13 Senate shooting to slip away from the building.
The senator left the Senate compound at roughly 2:30 a.m. on May 14. In the aftermath, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano relayed a statement from Nancy to the chamber. “I’d also like to ask for forgiveness for all the confusion and havoc it has created in the Senate. It is for this reason I am sure that Ronald made his ‘escape,'” the message read. Cayetano added, citing her words: “He told me that, while he had stayed in the Senate, he was dragging them more… He felt everyone’s safety was more important, no matter how safe he felt at the Senate.”
The manhunt stems from an ICC arrest warrant tied to the Duterte administration’s anti-narcotics drive. Dela Rosa has been named a co-perpetrator in the crimes against humanity case lodged against former president Rodrigo Duterte, a designation linked to his tenure as Philippine National Police chief between 2016 and 2018. Estimates compiled under then-ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan placed the death toll from that campaign at somewhere between 12,000 and 30,000 people.
