Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel (left), Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa (Facebook)

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel has called out Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa for supposedly using the victim card in connection with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) planned probe on the previous Duterte administration's bloody war on illegal drugs. 

"Pa-victim masyado. Hindi pang-aapi ang imbestigasyon," Makabayan solon Manuel said in a statement Wednesday, Jan. 24. 

(You're playing victim too much. Investigation does not equate to persecution). 

"He should be brave enough to face any possible charges or be held accountable," he said of Dela Rosa, who served as the Philippines National Police (PNP) chief at the start of former president Rodrigo Duterte's term. This makes Dela Rosa sa police chief when Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign was launched. 

"Swerte pa nga ni Sen. Bato dahil binibigyan pa siya ng due process at pagkakataong magpaliwanag, ‘di tulad ng libo-libong mga Pilipino, lalo mga kabataan, na pinatay sa pekeng gera kontra droga dahil lang pinaghinalaan ng mga pulis," reckoned the youth representative. 

(Sen. Bato should consider himself lucky because he is being given due process and the chance to explain, unlike the thousands of Filipinos, especially the youth, who were killed in this fake war on drugs just because cops suspected ill of them.) 

On Monday, Jan. 23, Dela Rosa challenged President Marcos to “be man enough” to tell the public that he plans to have Duterte and himself investigated and jailed by the ICC. 

Manuel said the senator appears to be getting "paranoid" over the ICC case. "Alam niyang mabigat, marami at di maitatanggi ang ebidensiya laban sa kanya at sa kanyang amo na si Rodrigo Duterte." 

(He knows that the evidence against him and his boss Rodrigo Duterte are numerous, substantial, and undeniable.) 

Regarding the ICC investigation on the Duterte drug war, Manuel said: "Nais ng mamamayan ang katarungan para sa bayang minasaker sa ilalim ng war on drugs." 

(The citizenry yearns for justice over the massacre caused by the war on drugs to the country.)