Neophyte Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa today apologized for his comment on the death of 3-year-old Myca Ulpina, who was shot during a buy-bust operation in Rodriguez, Rizal late last month.
In his comments during a Senate press conference on Thursday, de la Rosa said Myca’s death was an example of a drug operation that went south and said that sometimes, “sh*t happens.”
His Senate colleagues and the public called him out for his comment, which many said was highly inappropriate if not downright insensitive. This led de la Rosa to apologize on the ANC talk show Headstart this morning.
“I apologize to the family for that comment which I said. I was wrong; those kinds of words are something that I should have said within the police community, not for the general public. People are prone to give it the wrong meaning,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
De la Rosa said there was a better phrase to describe his thoughts.
“Instead of the word ‘sh*t,’ let’s change that to ‘unfortunate incident.’ That’s what I meant. I’m sorry to the family that I have hurt. No one wants anyone to die, most especially an innocent person. It’s a 3-year-old; it’s painful to lose a child. That situation was unacceptable.”
However, he said that while the phrase “sh*t happens” is wrong to use, it’s a valid explanation as to why some police operations go wrong.
“It’s wrong for me to say ‘sh*t happens,’ but that’s true in police operations. Show me a cop who wants his operations to go wrong. No one. No one. [Everyone] wants to have the perfect operation. But if you don’t have any control of the operational environment, sh*t really happens. Wrong things will occur,” he said.
Myca died after she was allegedly caught in a crossfire between the police, her suspected drug dealer father Renato Dolofrina, and his unidentified associate, inside her own home.
Rodriguez cops alleged that Myca was shot because Dolofrina used her as a “human shield” during the gunfight. However, Myca’s mother said there was no truth to this claim and that her child died due to a stray bullet because she did not leave her father’s side when the cops barged into their house.
International non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch said in its report about Myca’s death that police accounts of drug raids are unreliable, a sentiment echoed by Amnesty International in a report today where it said that police reports appear to follow a certain template.
De la Rosa will lead the investigation into Myca’s case as the chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs but said that he would remain impartial during the proceedings which will start on July 23.
“I just said ‘sh*t happens’ because that’s the reality in the life of a cop. But it doesn’t mean that I’m absolving the PNP for that incident. Someone died. An innocent 3-year-old child died so they have to face the music. An investigation is necessary so that whoever is responsible will be made accountable. Even if it’s unintentional … life has been lost. So someone should be made responsible for that,” De la Rosa said.
The PNP temporarily relieved the 19 police officers involved in the incident and the Rodriguez Police chief last week to give way to an investigation into Myca’s death. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has also started investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
As Duterte’s first police chief, de la Rosa was responsible for launching the president’s bloody drug war in 2016. The PNP announced last month that 6,600 drug suspects have been killed in anti-drug operations from June 2016 to May 2019. However, the CHR said in December that the number could be as high as 27,000.
Despite having left the PNP, de la Rosa is still concerned with the drug war. Last month, he said that he will file a Senate bill that proposes that drug traffickers be executed in public by a firing squad. He also wants the executions to be broadcast live by the media.
