, -,," TuesDav I AueusT 20) 2019
WWW.INQUIRER.NET
EDJ[ORI[t
Rock
'of insincerity
t was not really surprising that Sen. Ronald
'lBato" dela Rosa's first hearing as chair of the
* was quick with a retort: "Anongklaseng parent ka?
S€nate committee on public order and dan-
gerous drugs would target militant groups,.a
thorn in the side of his patron, the PresidenL
Under the guise of investigating the
alleged recruitment of minors by teftist
groups, the former chief of the Philippine
National Police attempted to project
himself as the new child advocate in town.
Which would have been fine, if not for the irony,
or-in the words of Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos
Zarate-the hypocrisy of it.
As the newlf minted senator presented an-
guished'mothers making heartfelt pleas for the re-
turn of their daughters who were supposedly re-
cruited by groups like Anakbayan, one had the
thought that such incidents were best left for fami-
lies to privately deal with rather than through a
public inquiry. The two"female students deemed
missing would surface, aftcr all, to clariff that they
had voluntarily joined activist groups,, and that
family differences were at the root of their decision
to defy their parents and join those organizations.
But because Zarate presented one of the "miss-
ing" girls in a press conference at the House of Rep-
resentatives while her mother was making her plea
at the Senate committee, Dela Rosa puffed himself
up into a sanctimonious balloon, then huffed out
the line that ended up as the meme of the week.
"What kind of parent are you?" Dela Rosa demand-
'You're also a parent If you re a responsi-
ed of Zarate.
ble parent, youknowthe motherwas crying, dontyou
have pity on the mother? You should have helped, you
should have brought the child to the mottrer."
Whictr, one could Er64te, was avalid point-except
unfortunatety, the shrdents themselves said.they did
not want to be associated with their parents' public ap-
pearance on behalf of Dela Rosa's patent agenda to
muscle the police and military into schools. A$ ffiea
Lucen4 one of thqstu$ents, i"ia in a Faceboon gr$t
'Paia sa AFP at saTehimeng Duterte (To ttre $FP and
Dutefte administration): Doh't you dare use me and
my family to cover up your inutility and rotten admin-
istratior-r-b Lucena is r8 years old, which makes her ari
adultcapable of mat<ing up her ownmifrd-
\ |QAei6
More to the point, Dela Rosa acting as an adult
concerned for the welfare and safety of so-called
wayward kids proved to be too laughable apremise
for many. Former representative Neri Colmenares
Nais mong ibaba ang criminal age of responsibility
para makulong ang mga bata. Anongklaseng parent
ka? Maraming minors ang namatay sa antidrug
campaign na pinamunuan nao (What kind of a par-
ent are you? You want to lower the age of criminali-
ty so that children will be jailed... Many minors
were killed in the drug war you administered)."
- Indeed, call it karmic coincidence:-maybe the
heavens were sending a reminder?-but Dela Rosa
would debut ad Senate committee chair proclaiming
ttrat his "heart bleeds" for the minors recnrited to ioin
the ranksof militant groups, and endorsing heightened
military and police presenceinuniversities a mere two
@ys \ef_ore the second anniversary of the death of a
minor whose killing under the drug war he ran would
forever be abloody stain onhis police badge.
The death of a defenseless Kian delos Santos, ry,
onAug 16 nryoyears ago inthe hands of Caloocanpo-
licemen, captured on CCTV, so horrified the public
that President Duterte was forced to suspend t'Oplan
Tokhang." Just as sickening was the odious behavior
of Dela Rosa, then the PNP chieland others in the po-
lice force following the incident. Showing not an
ounce of sympathy for the dead child or his family,
Dela Rosa instead gleefullypeddled disinformation to
malign the boy and his'Sin. fi"t, he declared, was a
courier for his father, the drug user, and his uncles,
the pushers. None of those public accl,rsations would
pan ouL Three cops would eventuallybe found'guilty
for Kian's murder, but the Caloocan police chief was
even promoted after waiting out the firestorm.
Dela Rosa's newfound zeal to protect children,
his big to-do about proper parenting in the guise of
keeping children away from the dangers of ac-
tivism and critical thinking, falls flat in the face of
the gruesome death toll of dozens of minors that
have been killed in the drug war. Just last mohth,
that war's chief barker and form€r. rloscot also
infamously chirped, in describing the death of
3-year-old Myca Ulpina in a drug buy-bust opera-
tion, that, well, "Shit happens.'
. A rock of insinierity and pretense is sitting
in the Senate. I
-Alou