We put Jonvic Remulla under the examination of our magnifying lens. We are the public and accountability is our call. Remulla is the man tasked with the pursuit of bringing fugitive Bato dela Rosa to the bar of justice of the International Criminal Court. It is a task that is allowed by law, RA 9851 and recently affirmed by the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
Will Remulla pass the test of accountability? Take note of the timeline.
On September 8, in an interview by One News’ Storycon, Remulla said that Dela Rosa was hiding and being coddled by very powerful people. “We know where he is hiding.”
A month and eleven days passed. On October 19, during an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), Remulla said that arresting Dela Rosa would cost 10,000 lives. He reiterated the same the next day, Oct. 20, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime.
Remulla was sending out a cryptic message: there was no negotiation that possibly happened in the interregnum. If there was, he did not succeed with it. But what bothered the public was something more excruciating than waiting for Bato’s arrest: the Remulla shorthand seemed to say – “I will not arrest Bato.”
The 10,000-deaths warning immediately drew ridicule and mockery. Why would Remulla, a former governor now ambitioning for a high national position, stake his credibility on a preposterous idea? Media Meter was agog with incredulous laughter.
The figure, offered without a stated basis, became the day’s most-shared line, and on Facebook it drew laughter far more than alarm: a GMA News post carrying the quote collected 1,252 “haha” reactions against 698 likes and 517 comments, while a regional radio post on the same remarks drew 43 “haha” reactions and 22 comments.
Remulla was now the laughing stock of the government. It didn’t help that on the same day, wanted businessman Atong Ang, said Remulla, had “escaped the backdoor and is now in Cambodia.” Remulla is now the nation’s most incredible official – he knows where the fugitives are but could not capture them.
A SunStar Cebuano-language editorial called the escape: Usa ka dako nga tamparos (a huge slap) to the justice system and pointed to conflicting government statements about Ang’s whereabouts over the previous eight months.
The military establishment’s statement was the bigger slap: Remulla’s 10,000 deaths was “not an accurate intelligence assessment.” It cited Armed Forces of the Philippines figures that combined forces of the Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Maute Group and even including the New People’s Army, only number 850 nationwide.
Let’s make the shorthand even clearer. On the day that Remulla held his press conference, Bato was fleeing the protection of his powerful coddler. There was Bato-Remulla synchronicity.
The coddler does not have a massive army. He is a municipal mayor in the Davao Region, a remnant of the Dutertes’ Davao Death Squad. The confessed DDS hitman Arturo Lascañas mentioned him a number of times in his affidavit to the ICC. He is also financially endowed. He operates Small Town Lotteries in at least four Mindanao regions.
That he has been protecting Dela Rosa is something we have known since December 2025.
What is this municipal mayor’s firepower? It is puny compared to the state’s forces. He does the DDS template: he has clout with regional police. He has say-so over police assignments in Region 11. He needs the police to protect his STL franchises. He was also in cahoots with Atong Ang’s online sabong during the Duterte administration. Thus, he can use the police other than peace and order work.So you see why Jonvic cannot arrest Bato? It is because all these protectors should have been arrested anyway too. There is a huge crime network out there in the Davao Region and Jonvic’s Philippine National Police is involved.
The only thing Jonvic can do is theatrics.
Jonvic Remulla is the enemy of accountability and the rule of law.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
