Bato dela Rosa formalizes senatorial reelection bid

FILE PHOTO: Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa presides over the Finance Subcommittee C hearing on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, on the proposed budgets of the Department of National Defense and its attached agencies, including the appropriation for the Revised AFP Modernization Program. (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for reelection on Thursday.

Dela Rosa filed his COC for senator at the Manila Hotel’s Tent City on the third day of COC filing for the 2025 midterm polls.

Before being a senator, dela Rosa served as the first chief of the Philippine National Police under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. He held the position for 21 months —  from July 2016 to April 2018.

READ: Bato dela Rosa urged to explain role in Duterte ‘drug war’ before ICC

Being Duterte’s former top cop, he was also the chief implementer of Duterte’s brutal campaign against illegal drugs — which landed him on the roster of Duterte administration officials who were accused of crimes against humanity by drug war victims-families before the International Criminal Court.

After his mandatory retirement from the police service, dela Rosa was appointed as the Director General of the Bureau of Corrections and then joined the senatorial race in the 2019 national polls.

He won and placed 5th in that election, garnering more than 19 million votes.