FIRING LINE: Bato’s ice-cold bath

By Robert B. Roque, Jr.

There’s no doubt about it — the blood spilled during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs demands justice. The innocent lives lost cannot simply be brushed aside under the banner of “collateral damage.”

Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who led the Philippine National Police at the height of Oplan Tokhang, bears responsibility for a campaign that turned state power into a weapon against its own citizens.

Reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Dela Rosa test our nation’s resolve to uphold both accountability and the rule of law. Human rights advocates and families of victims have long awaited this reckoning.

Yet, within government circles, hesitation remains partly because of what the Supreme Court (SC) has laid down: under its new rule on extradition, “a prior resort to a court” is now required before any person subject to an international warrant may be brought out of the country. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, himself a former Chief Justice, reiterated this process, effectively placing the first move back in Philippine judicial hands.

On the surface, that seems sound judgment. But I somehow take exception that this same Court, as currently composed, counts a majority of justices appointed by former president Rodrigo Duterte himself. As of October 2025, at least 12 of the 15 sitting magistrates owe their appointments to Duterte’s term.

With such a bench, how much confidence can we truly place in the impartiality of rulings that may determine the fate of their appointer and his loyal enforcer? I mean no disrespect to the men and women in robes, but justice loses its color when politics tints the court of last resort.

This is precisely why the ICC exists — because for crimes as grave and systemic as the drug war’s mass killings, faith in domestic accountability has eroded.

Meanwhile, Dela Rosa himself has remained silent on the reported ICC warrant. But the internet has not. A viral TikTok video has surfaced, showing him taking the “ice bath challenge” — and I don’t know if this one is new or old. But the imagery is presented with the right timing to the ICC development.

In the video, Senator Bato nervously keeps asking if he’d be fine, if he wouldn’t pass out or suffer hypothermia while performing the ice-bath dip. Some netizens joked, calling him “Rock on Ice” — a nod to his nickname, Bato, and his visibly uneasy plunge.

Perhaps it was an innocent health ritual, but the symbolism chills: he feared the cold shock of ice, yet his victims never got the luxury of choosing their peril. His fear was human — self-preserving — a rare contrast to his old bravado before the ICC.

If he truly is guilty, he should tremble still; for the punishment that awaits him may prove colder — as cold as the killing spree that once gripped the nation under his command.

*         *         *

SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View via X. Read current and past issues of this column at https://www.thephilbiznews.com