Will they talk?

To protect themselves, will the underlings stop protecting their superiors?

Speculations are swirling these days on what Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa might tell the International Criminal Court, after he expressed willingness, for the first time ever, to be interviewed “anytime” by the ICC.

He said this after Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra confirmed that the ICC had notified the Philippine government that five persons had been identified as “suspects” in a possible case of murder as a crime against humanity related to the war on drugs waged by Rodrigo Duterte when he was president and, earlier, mayor of Davao City.

The suspects, apart from Dela Rosa, are former Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde, Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo of the National Police Commission, Northern Luzon police commander Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat and PNP Drug Enforcement Group chief Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta.

A tell-all by Dela Rosa would be compelling. A native of Davao del Sur, nearly his entire PNP career was spent in the Davao region, much of it in Davao City.

Dela Rosa has not denied being described as the architect of Oplan Tokhang, which Duterte launched in line with his campaign promise to eliminate the drug scourge nationwide within six months of his presidency.

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The senator has openly admitted that police abuses were committed in the conduct of the drug war. He had told us in TV interviews that if there was anything he regretted, it was the failure to first carry out a thorough housecleaning in the PNP before the bloody campaign was launched, to prevent police abuses.

But he has denied any direct order from Duterte for a systematic, state-sponsored execution of drug suspects. Those public threats of Duterte to kill drug dealers? Everyone knows Duterte is fond of hyperbole, Dela Rosa told us.

Would Albayalde have a different story? He has said his conscience is clear. As PNP chief, he had presided over the reworked second phase of Tokhang, code-named Double Barrel, which targeted major drug dealers instead of the mostly impoverished penny-ante neighborhood drug pushers in the initial “shock and awe” phase of the crackdown.

What about Napolcom’s