EVERYTHING BUT VALOR. After long months of absconding while profiteering off the public treasury, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, in a noble sacrifice, resurfaced in a poetic homage to the interests not of the Filipino people, but of the Duterte family, in a vote that sets the stage for the impending impeachment.

After a dramatic chase-off with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) officers, Sen. Bato appearead infuriated at the Senate session hall, aligning himself with the faulty Duterte narrative of a victim complex.

Since the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) then-alleged issuance of an arrest warrant for Sen. Bato made rounds in relation to his involvement in the extrajudicial killings (EJK), the senator retreated into hiding, with him last being seen working on November 11, 2025—almost half a year before his return yesterday, May 11, 2026.

“The rock indeed inevitably folds when served in front of a piece of paper, with Sen. Bato now bending to shun into the paper in the form of the arrest warrant.”

Apart from the fact that his sabbatical-like absence is a glaring insult to the working class’ carried reality of “no work, no pay”, his absenteeism and eventual comeback poses as an indignity to the people he is decreed to serve, as his return anchors profoundly on political agendas alone.

The significant development in the long-running process of impeachment proceedings against Vice-President (VP) Sara Duterte, with the House of Representatives impeaching VP Sara for the second time, inexplicably materializes Sen. Bato’s attendance in his job as a senator.

After a prolonged absence, he gambled his presence within the Senate building to officially cast his vote in a surprise coup ousting Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto, in an act to solidify the Duterte alliance in the upper chamber, in view of the awaited turn of the impeachment proceedings.

Following the legible pattern, irrefutable is Sen. Bato and the pro-Duterte senators’ diehard loyalty revered to the Duterte family. But of primary significance is the rectitude of public service for public interest and the question of loyalty for the general welfare of the Filipino people for whose name shall they breathe.

Under the guise of protecting our nation’s sovereignty by fighting foreign intrusion to our judicial system, the Senators tasked to serve the Filipinos now exclusively caters to a certain politician, using the legislative power granted to them by the Constitution.

Through leveraging on the delegated powers and traditions, the senators now raises the defense of simply following protocol of the institution of the  “Senate Protective-Custody”— seeking to protect a senator who is now perceived as a potential “criminal” under international lens with attributed trump up charges on crimes against humanity as a co-perpetrator to former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The pro-Duterte senators share not just the same faulty justifications. They also share the same lack of fondness for the sanctity of the attached dignity in their mandated duty, responsibilities, individuality, compatriots, and even to a place devoted to feel the pulse of justice and the collective will and welfare of the Filipinos—as Sen. Bato ironically and literally runs away from accountability in the very place where it should begin.

Statement by Senator Robin Padilla reaching to make a concrete comparison with Sen. Bato’s arrest as a betrayal to one of the national heroes of the Philippines, Senator Bong Go’s “bayani” portrayal of Sen. Bato after his resurgence, along with a number of narratives from the Duterte camp, is an outright political distortion of accountability and an affront to public reason.

The rock indeed inevitably folds when served in front of a piece of paper, with Sen. Bato now bending to shun into the paper in the form of the arrest warrant.

May the impeachment proceedings assent to due justice without it being further obstructed by political maneuverings which undermine democracy and the rule of law in the land of our beloved Philippines. It is hoped that the hands that direct the future of the country would be Filipino enough to step up and represent the name of the Filipinos as a collective—with the 20th Congress delivering the honor and service that they truly deserve.