Teka-teka Junior

Think about it: if the highest paid ghost employee in government, MIA Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, had resisted arrest on suspicion of any offense in the previous administration, he would have been shot dead on the spot, no questions asked, for fighting back or nanlaban.

And think about it, too: if the House of Representatives had waited for the Supreme Court to rule on a petition for a temporary restraining order on the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, the case would still be in limbo.

Instead House members, many of them lawyers, decided that in the absence of a TRO from the nation’s highest court, they would proceed with their tasks, with the presumption of regularity in their actions.

Lawyers have pointed out that a petition for a TRO carries urgency. The Supreme Court, in assessing the petition, can do several things, according to the lawyers: it may either acknowledge the urgency and issue the TRO forthwith, or reject the petition.

Or else the SC may choose to show that the petition lacks merit by taking its sweet time deciding on it. The message to the government is, with regularity presumed, just do what you want.

This is what the SC has done in the urgent petition filed over a year ago by the Duterte camp (with another urgent pleading filed just recently), challenging the validity of the turnover of Rodrigo Duterte to the Interpol and hence to the International Criminal Court.

While the ICC is unlikely to heed any order by the Philippine Supreme Court to return Duterte to the country, the urgent petitions are meant to cover similar ICC arrest warrants issued to other Filipinos.

But the SC did not see even the “extreme urgency” in the petition of Senator Bato for a TRO on his arrest and surrender to the ICC by the government, as allowed under Section 17 of Republic Act 9851, the local law covering crimes against humanity.

In the absence of such a TRO, nothing is stopping the government – which has recognized the ICC proceedings, as provided under RA 9851 – from enforcing the ICC arrest warrant for Dela Rosa.

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Only the epic bungling stopped the arrest, beginning from the slapstick attempt to grab him along the Senate stairwell, to the pissing contest between Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla and his rumored replacement, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, and on to the long-running turf war between the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police.

That bungled arrest reminded me of “Dumb and Dumber” – except the 1994 movie was entertaining, while the Senate slapstick was infuriating.

The long, chaotic day was capped by the wimpy announcement of President Marcos himself, that he had ordered state forces not to arrest the senator.

Why? His officials, led by Secretary Kontrabida (as per Senate chief Alan Peter Cayetano) would later point to that pending petition before the SC, asking for a TRO and questioning the planned turnover to the ICC.

But what if the SC sits on the petition for 14 months – or, more in keeping with its record, 14 years?

BBM’s hesitation, even in the absence of a TRO on the arrest, betrays his own doubts about his policy of recognizing the ICC proceedings and the surrender of Digong Duterte and Bato to The Hague, as allowed under RA 9851.

If BBM stopped Dela Rosa’s arrest mainly out of courtesy to his former colleagues in Congress, he should ask himself if those sorry excuses for lawmakers deserve courtesy.

Especially if the undeserved courtesy allowed one of the nation’s most wanted persons to sneak away.

Naturally, because of BBM’s assurance of no arrest, Dela Rosa left Senate “protective custody” ASAP, under heavy armed guard by his PMA mistah Mao Aplasca, and escorted by bestie Sen. Robinhood Padilla.

Since Aplasca behaves like the head of Alan Peter Cayetano’s private army, he should be taken out of the public payroll. Surely the Cayetanos can pay for their own bodyguards.

The government may also want to review Aplasca’s pension. As a retired two-star police general, Aplasca gets about P200,000 a month as pension. Public school teachers and nurses, what do you think of this?

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Now, Dela Rosa is back as a ghost employee. If only for this, he deserves arrest for defrauding us taxpayers.

Cayetano lost no time in telling the nation that Dela Rosa left the Senate without informing him, and thus Senator Bato’s “protective custody” had ended; “he’s on his own.”

Because of shaky trust all around, conspiracy theorists suspect that BBM was himself part of a zarzuela with the Senate to allow Dela Rosa to flee.

These developments have earned BBM a new moniker: Teka-teka Junior. Everything has become teka-teka, hold it, not so fast: the flood control and budget mess; the promised suspension or reduction of fuel excise taxes; the arrest of the architect and chief implementer of Oplan Tokhang.

The president of the republic is supposed to lead in upholding the rule of law. Unless someone can take the bullet for BBM, such as Jonvic Remulla or Melvin Matibag, it’s the President who will get the blame for this fiasco at the Senate.

BBM should worry that this mess could turn his endorsement in 2028 into a kiss of death, just like what happened to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2010 elections.

While waiting forever for the SC ruling, the administration can show some intestinal fortitude and seriously consider indicting at least some of the drama kings and queens for obstruction of justice.

Presidential Decree 1829 on obstruction of justice, signed by BBM’s father Ferdinand Senior, penalizes offenders with permanent disqualification from public office. Pursuing such cases could spare the nation permanently from at least some of the atrocities who dare call themselves public servants.

Failure to file charges related to this sordid incident will be just as bad as the failure to catch Bato dela Rosa.