No joke for Sen. Bong Go

By Herbert Vego

IT must have stunned Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go to hear it from his presumed political ally, Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo “Polong” Duterte.

As reported in the papers, Polong had spread the news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) had already issued a warrant of arrest against him.

Anyway, Go must have heaved a sigh of relief on learning that former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV had denied the story.  There was no such warrant – rather, not yet.

After all, it was Trillanes who had correctly announced that the warrant was only for Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is now in hiding.

No less than Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla appeased Bong Go with a slant directed to Polong.

“Baka sabog siya nun, nung narinig niya, kasi wala pa kaming nakikitang ganun eh, so di namin alam,” Remulla heckled in a press conference.

But why would Polong scare the wits out of the former “super alalay” of his dad, former President Rodrigo Duterte?

There have been rumors that Polong and his siblings – Davao City Mayor Baste and Vice Pres. Sara — hate Bong Go because he was closer to the former president than they were.

Bong Go’s relationship with the Duterte children has faced notable strains and periods of coldness. It surfaced publicly in 2021 when former President Rodrigo Duterte pushed for a Bong Go-Sara Duterte tandem for the 2022 presidential/vice-presidential race.

Remember those “Run Sara run” giant posters with pictures of the duo?

But Inday Sara bluntly declared that Senator Bong Go “is not my ally but my father’s.” As it eventually turned out, she ran in tandem with presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to forge a “uniteam” that would eventually disintegrate.

Bong Go and Bato are co-respondents of former President Rodrigo Duterte, now detained and awaiting trial at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands for crimes against humanity through extrajudicial killings of thousands of alleged drug pushers during his “war on drugs” since 2016.

Take it from Kristina Conti (ICC Assistant to Counsel), who has been saying that Go and Bato are among eight Duterte men named by the ICC as alleged “co-perpetrators,” along with former police officers Vicente Danao, the late Camilo Cascolan, Oscar Albayalde, former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief Dante Gierran, former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Isidro Lapeña and former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

Conti named them as suspects in three counts covering 49 incidents of killings, with 78 victims, both in the context of the Davao Death Squad (DDS) when Duterte was mayor and during the war on drugs when he was president.

In reaction to Polong’s warning, Go said, “Ipinagpapasa Diyos ko na lamang po ang lahat. Buong buhay ko, wala po akong nilabag na anumang batas ng tao o batas ng Diyos. Police matters have never been part of my mandate.”

That sounded cool. If he did not participate in any way in the murder of the victims of the “war on drugs,” then he had nothing to fear, since only those who know they are guilty would hide.

In contrast, an unrepentant Bato had asked the Supreme Court for a temporary ‌ restraining order (TRO) to prevent his arrest and transport to the ICC, but to no avail.

With Associate Justice Samuel Gaerlan as ponente, the Court denied Dela Rosa’s request.

In his concurring opinion, Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa wrote, “The Court should not come to the rescue of an individual, a public official no less, who is charged with mass murder, and who is being brought before the ICC to face the consequences of his actions that flouted the rule of law with impunity.”