Incoming Senator Bato de la Rosa wants to attend lawmaking seminars

Former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa is now poised to win a seat in the Senate based on the partial and unofficial results from Monday’s midterm elections, but apparently, he’s not exactly up to the task just yet and wants to learn a bit more about what it entails.

“Is there is a seminar or training [for this]? So that I can learn how to make laws and what our job is in the Senate. If there’s any, I will take that opportunity so I could learn. I will study and plan my actions,” he said in Filipino during an interview with CNN Philippines last night. 

The first time senator said he expected to win because of President Rodrigo Duterte’s endorsement but thought he would only land between the 10th to 12th places, considering that he was up against more experienced politicians.

As of 9:25am today, de la Rosa is now ranked number 5 among all the senatorial candidates, according to partial and unofficial results aggregated from the Commission on Elections with 96.23 percent of Election Returns. Most of the top senatorial bets are Duterte allies.

CNN anchor Pia Hontiveros suggested that he could take up courses at the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), to which he replied:  “I won’t go to UP. It’s risky. The place is anti-military. I don’t want to go there. It’s anti-police.”

One of the top universities in the country, UP is known for its culture of activism. In October, the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines tagged several schools in Metro Manila, including UP as part of an alleged ouster plot against Duterte called “Red October.” However, no such ouster has occurred.

De la Rosa said that he’ll also get help from Senators Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and JV Ejercito to prep for his Senate post.

“I’ll call Koko Pimentel, JV Ejercito and I’ll ask what the work of a senator is and what I need to prepare.”

This isn’t the first time that de la Rosa admitted that he still has a lot to learn about being a senator. When he was asked how he would tackle inflation in October, he said: “I’m clueless there.”

“That’s not my expertise. I am not a businessman, I am a law enforcer,” he said in Filipino. “I’ll hire researchers. Experts will do it so I won’t look like a fool.”