There is a favorite slang term in Cebuano Binisayâ one commonly hears as an expression of disgust: Hilas. While it directly translates to “gross” or “disgusting,” it is actually frequently used to describe someone who is shameless, arrogant, highly confident, or has the audacity to do something inappropriate.
What explains Bato Dela Rosa, otherwise a senator of the Republic, to do something audaciously inappropriate by showing he has no respect for the law?
While they say it is common – not illegal – for senators and members of the House of Representatives to hire family members to co-terminus positions, Dela Rosa went five steps ahead with that unwritten privilege. He filled his entire senate office with family members of himself and his wife’s.
Perhaps only the thick-faced will have such hubris and hilas:
Marianne Kristel C. Dela Rosa Estoesta, daughter, chief of staff; Mona Lisa C. Dela Rosa Gino, daughter, Director II; Ruvy Ann Dela Rosa Garcia, sister; Jessica May Dela Rosa, niece; Joanne Cedie P. Dela Rosa, niece; John Kerwin Dela Rosa Garcia, nephew; Jose Erwin Dela Rosa Garcia, nephew; and two of Mrs. Nancy Comandante Dela Rosa’s family members: Rebecca and Jennifer Comandante.
The Dela Rosa audacity is unli. He continues to collect his salary even as he has been absent in the senate since November 2025. What a very lucky man for an elected high official of the land receiving compensation from public funds.
Wag Kang KuCorrupt is determined to end that lucky streak. The civil society group has filed a formal complaint before the Senate committee on ethics over his prolonged absence.
The complaint shows us there are normal and ethical people in the Philippines so unlike the powerful and the privileged like Bato Dela Rosa. Will committee chair JV Ejercito act normally and ethically by not playing his usual politics?
Wag Kang KuCorrupt argues: a sitting senator who fails to report for work to perform official functions constitutes “a clear dereliction of duty” and a “grave abuse of the privilege entrusted to him by the Filipino people.”
Who, what initiated Dela Rosa to such an abusive practice of public office? He learned the ropes from Rodrigo Duterte’s grotesque distortion of public office, the kind that breaks the law.
Of the numerous eloquent evidence submitted to the International Criminal Court, one narrates how Dela Rosa was shaped by Duterte.
Dela Rosa secretly founded his very own Death Squad before he founded tokhang. His envy and jealousy of SPO4 Sonny Buenaventura’ closeness to Mayor RRD led him to create his own evil trademark Tokhang when he became Davao City Police Office Director. He had his own mass grave handled and managed by SPO4 Steve dela Cruz, who was also one of Dela Rosa’s policeman-handlers of their own Death Squad. Included in his squads was the group of Wangyo Latayada, a former New People’s Army Sparrow Unit hitman.
There was one killing operation with Jim Tan, Bobong Aquino, and the Duhilag brothers when they were about to hit a suspected shabu trader standing outside his store at between 8-9 o’clock in the morning, along the corner of Monteverde and Lizada streets, Davao City. Suddenly, two hitmen riding in tandem on a motorcycle, arrived and shot our intended target person point-blank. They killed the target instantly and they fled away on board their motorcycle.
Jim Tan wanted to intercept the killers of who was supposed to be our target. But I told him that I identified the shooter. He was Wangyo Latayada. I told Jim Tan to immediately call Sonny Buenaventura and we narrated what had transpired. He replied that he would call SPO4 Steve Dela Cruz. Subsequently, Sonny Buenaventura confirmed to us that it was Dela Rosa who ordered Dela Cruz to neutralize the said suspect, as cleared and approved by Mayor RRD.
Sonny Buenaventura later learned from Mayor RRD that Dela Rosa had asked his permission to create his own death squad to help in the drug war campaign in Davao City, and Mayor RRD approved it. In short, the Davao Death Squad now had a competitor in the person of Police Superintendent Ronald Dela Rosa. In effect, his death squad stole from us the P50,000 bounty offered by Mayor RRD on the person killed.
This was a classic case of political patronage. Duterte was the patron as the power holder, Dela Rosa was the client as the recipient of publicly stolen largesse, the intelligence and confidential funds Duterte used to run his Davao Death Squad.
In 1989, when Dela Rosa married Nancy Comandante, the principal sponsor in the church wedding was Rodrigo Duterte. It was a compadrazgo relationship that cemented a bond between Dela Rosa and Duterte. Godparent Duterte’s role was to secure protection, provide economic support and jobs to his godson.
There should be no doubt in our minds: Bato Dela Rosa belongs to jail.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.