‘Speaker, Trillanes tried to get police testimony for ICC’

MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Martin Romualdez, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and two other government officials had allegedly tried to convince former and active police officials to execute affidavits and to testify against Sen. Ronald dela Rosa and former president Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Dela Rosa said Romualdez, Trillanes, House appropriations committee chairman Rep. Zaldy Co and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) chief Ricardo de Leon had “very private meetings” with Northern Luzon police command chief Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr., National Police Commission Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo and Philippine National Police (PNP) Drug Enforcement Group chief Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta on different occasions.

The three officers along with Dela Rosa and former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde have reportedly been named as “suspects” by the ICC in a possible case of murder as a crime against humanity in connection with the war on drugs.

“I have reliable information. The one who brought them was General Dick de Leon, the director general of NICA, together with Trillanes, and present in their conversation were Speaker Martin Romualdez and appropriations chair of the Lower House, Cong. Zaldy Co. In different instances, they were there,” Dela Rosa said in an interview.

When asked about Romualdez’s participation in the meetings, Dela Rosa said, “He was just there. They talked. It’s a very private meeting. But the ones who really convinced them to talk to them were this General Dick de Leon and Trillanes. The two others were just there.”

Dela Rosa said the police officers were not convinced to file affidavits as they stood their ground in not implicating him and Duterte.

Dela Rosa said the efforts to implicate them were meant “to erase Duterte and his allies from the face of the Earth.”