Ces Drilon had a trending interview with Jimmy Bondoc
One News PH news anchor Ces Drilon appeared to be “stressed” over her heated conversation with Atty. Jimmy Bondoc, the legal counsel of Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
Their heated discussion on Drilon’s news program was about the serving of a warrant of arrest on his client.
Bondoc insisted that it is only right in the Philippines to charge the senator if he allegedly violated any law, especially since the witnesses are here in the country, based on the report from Bandera.
Drilon interjected, asking Jimmy “out of fairness” who should be asked why Dela Rosa could not be charged in the Philippines. “Ang gobyerno po, this is the people of the Philippines,” the lawyer pointed out.
However, the veteran journalist responded that according to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, the victims could not file the case in the Philippines, so they resorted to the ICC.
Meanwhile, Drilon laughed when Bondoc asked her “why”. “Bakit ako po ang tatanungin? This is their own statement. And precisely why is there an ICC, I don’t know why you are framing it as a demolition of Philippine sovereignty,” the news anchor said.
According to the lawyer, the Philippines is no longer a party to the Rome Statute, to which the journalist replied that the crimes occurred before the country withdrew from the Rome Statute.
Drilon claimed that an attempt was made to serve the arrest warrant on Dela Rosa but the senator ran away from it, causing him to fall on the fire exit stairs in the Senate. According to Jimmy, they were not given a formal copy of the ICC arrest warrant.
Then, Drilon stressed that this is the most important question. Dela Rosa showed up to vote for Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate President who was behind the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute. At the time, Cayetano was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. For the journalist, “it’s unbecoming to say the least.”
“Ah little correction, it was, of course President [Rodrigo] Duterte…” the lawyer answered.
After this, Ces seemed to cut off what the lawyer was saying because the show would exceed its alotted timeslot, and just asked for a brief explanation.
“Well, we are just waiting for the government authorities to serve us a personal service po no’ng warrant,” Bondoc said.
Drilon asked again how this could happen when Dela Rosa could not be found, to which Bondoc replied that that was their job as the senator’s legal counsel.
The journalist laughed at what the lawyer said. “We are his legal counsel. Ma’am, I hope you don’t ridicule us Ma’am, we’re doing our best…” he said. Ces Drilon replied to this by saying, “No, I’m not, you’re saying you want to personally serve but he ran away.”