SEN. Ronald dela Rosa yesterday said he apologized to Sen. Raffy Tulfo over the way the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs conducted its inquiry last Tuesday on the abuses of policemen about an operation in Pandi, Bulacan in August last year.
In an interview with Senate reporters, Dela Rosa said that soon after the hearing ended last Tuesday, he approached Tulfo in the Senate lounge to apologize for how the hearing was held.
“I said I’m sorry if he did not like the way I handled the committee hearing. I told him that he should not feel bad about it… I said ‘You should have asked for a one-minute suspension and talked to me… how you want this hearing to go,’” Dela Rosa said.
Tulfo walked out of the committee hearing last Tuesday, apparently dissatisfied with the different versions given by the cops on an operation in Pandi, Bulacan where they were searching for a wanted person.
Tulfo, in a statement, thanked Dela Rosa for approaching him after last Tuesday’s hearing, during which the former PNP chief admitted the cops were indeed lying.
“He knew that the cops were lying, that’s why Sen. Bato [dela Rosa] admitted that he too got angry at them,” Tulfo said.
The cops who conducted the operation claimed they had a warrant of arrest against a certain Elmer Vicente but their officer said there was none. Rodelio Vicente, an occupant of the house, and his son were later arrested for disobedience to a person of authority, and direct assault.
Rodelio said the arrests were done without a warrant or justification.
Tulfo apparently got irked with the way Dela Rosa supposedly protected the cops who conducted the operation.
“Mr. Chair, I will just have to leave. I cannot take it anymore. These cops are apparently fooling us. I’m sorry, I have to walk out. I cannot take this anymore,” Tulfo said before leaving the committee hearing.
Dela Rosa said he felt insulted by Tulfo’s action.
When asked if Tulfo also issued an apology, Dela Rosa said: He did not apologize. I told him that I felt insulted. But in fairness to him, he announced that he would walk out, and he asked permission from me. At least, that lessened my feeling of being insulted. At least, he asked for my permission.”
Dela Rosa denied the cops were given a kid’s glove treatment, saying they were accorded the same rights as what complainants are getting.
He said records will show that he is the senator who has cited in contempt many cops during committee hearings if he feels they were lying or evading questions.
“I have cited in contempt several cops and have them detained in the Senate if only to prove that I am not giving them a soft treatment. If something is worth to be acted upon, then I’ll do it. If not, then give them the respect and dignity that they should have,” he said.
Dela Rosa said he took it upon himself to reach out to Tulfo since he does not want “bad blood” with his fellow senator, adding he will not lose anything for being humble.
“I reached out to him because we are only 24 senators here, we see each other almost every day and it is not good that there is bad blood between us,” Dela Rosa said.
