Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa says he has no idea about the so-called "Davao model" from where the design of the previous Duterte administration's national drug war patterned from.

"I have no idea on that," Dela Rosa said in a message to reporters late Friday night, Oct. 11.

He was a former Davao City police chief during Rodrigo Duterte's time as city mayor.

Dela was then handpicked as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief by Duterte when the latter became president in 2016.

It was retired police colonel and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Royina Garma who accused Duterte of spearheading a national drug war model driven by cash rewards.

She disclosed this as she read a four-page affidavit during the marathon hearing of the House quad-committee (quad-comm) on Friday night, Oct. 11.

Dela Rosa said that there was no reward system in the anti-drug operation that Duterte ordered him to implement as PNP head honcho.

"There was none," he said.

Espinosa volunteered information

Dela Rosa also refuted the claims of Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa, who disclosed before the House quad-comm that the senator pressured him in November 2016 to implicate former senator Leila de Lima in the illegal drug trade.  

"Why do I need to force him to implicate De Lima when the PNP was not a party in the case build-up and the filing of drug cases against De Lima? It was entirely done by the DOJ (Department of Justice). Anong pakialam ko kay De Lima (Why would I care about De Lima)?" he added.

The Mindanao lawmaker also claimed that he had no knowledge of the alleged drug business of Peter Lim and retired police general Vicente Loot, who was his fellow Philippine Military Academy graduate.

"I had no idea about Peter Lim and General Loot's drug business. It was Kerwin Espinosa who volunteered that [information] to me when I asked him where did he get his supply of drugs. He answered me that sometimes he gets it from Peter Lim and sometimes from General Loot. I had no motive implicate them lalo na si General Loot who is a PMAyer," he said.

Dela Rosa earlier slammed the House of Representatives' ongoing investigation into the killings related to the bloody drug war of the previous Duterte administration.

The senator described the House probe as a “fishing expedition” meant to crush Duterte's allies ahead of the 2025 and 2028 elections.