28/05/2026
Lawyer Warns: Allowing Fugitive Senator Bato to Vote Online Is a Constitutional Disaster
Paulo Gaborni
MANILA -- Election lawyer Romulo “Romy” Macalintal warned Wednesday that a fugitive senator should not be allowed to log in and legislate from hiding, slamming any move to let Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa join Senate proceedings online while facing an arrest warrant.
Macalintal branded the Senate’s handling of Dela Rosa a “double standard,” after the majority bloc pushed to amend chamber rules to allow senators to attend and participate in sessions through teleconference, video conference, and other remote or electronic means.
“Hindi naman dapat pinapayagan iyon,” Macalintal said, criticizing the reported plan to allow Dela Rosa to vote or participate virtually.
Macalintal said the idea would create a dangerous double standard — one where a senator allegedly evading the law is still allowed to enjoy the powers and privileges of office.
“Hindi magandang halimbawa ito ng isang senador, na tumakas sa protective custody, pagkatapos ay siya ay magpa-participate online. Hinahanap siya ng batas, parang tinatawanan lang niya ang batas,” Macalintal said over DZRH’s Damdaming Bayan.
‘Justice is not one-sided’
Macalintal said Dela Rosa cannot invoke justice while allegedly avoiding the very legal processes he wants the courts to restrain.
“Ang sinabi ng Korte Suprema, ang batas na ito na dapat mong pangalagaan, ay tinatakasan mo, pagkatapos ngayon hihingi ka ng hustisya. Ang katarungan ay hindi one sided, kundi ‘yan ay both sides,” Macalintal said.
For Macalintal, the issue is not merely procedural. It is about whether public office can be used as a shield from accountability — and whether the Senate can bend its own rules for one of its members while ordinary citizens face the law without such privileges.
Bato Back in Hiding
Dela Rosa briefly surfaced at the Senate on May 11 to vote in the chamber’s leadership shake-up.
But after the National Bureau of Investigation attempted to serve an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, the senator was placed under the Senate’s protective custody.
He later slipped out of the Senate premises before dawn, following a chaotic shooting incident, and has since gone back into hiding.
Still Holding Committee Posts
Macalintal also pointed out that Dela Rosa still holds three Senate committee chairmanships despite his legal predicament.
He stressed that such a setup should not be allowed, especially when the lawmaker is no longer openly submitting himself to legal processes.
‘No special class’ for lawmakers
Macalintal cited the Supreme Court’s 2000 ruling in People v. Jalosjos, where the high court rejected a convicted lawmaker’s bid to perform legislative duties from prison.
In that case, the court said granting such a request “…will virtually make him a free man with all the privileges appurtenant to his position. Such an aberrant situation not only elevates his status to that of a special class, it also would be a mockery of the purposes of the correction system.”
Macalintal said the same logic applies even more forcefully to a lawmaker actively avoiding arrest.
If the state cannot create a “special class” for a detained official, he argued, it certainly cannot grant special digital privileges to a fugitive.
“Doing so sets a very bad precedent, if not an unconstitutional double standard that discriminates against ordinary citizens and similarly situated individuals under the law,” Macalintal said.
“The Senate leadership needs no reminder that the higher the office, the greater the requirement of obedience to the law — it should never be a passport to exemption,” he added.
📷 Senator Bato dela Rosa FB
