Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa defended himself regarding his 2019 statement "shit happens" in response to the death of a three-year-old child who was hit by a bullet during a buy-bust operation.
Dela Rosa asserted that during operations, when complete control of the environment is lacking, one can expect that things will go wrong.
"Yun nga nangyari na. Namatay 'yung bata, tinamaan 'yung bata, talagang for me, for us, shit happens. Nangyari 'yon. So what's the fuss of blaming ourselves," Dela Rosa said during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on Monday.
This is in reference to the death of three-year-old Myca Ulpina, one of the youngest victims of the drug war implemented during the Duterte administration.
"But that does not mean to degrade the departed soul of that child," said Dela Rosa.
He then accused Fr. Flavie Villanueva, SVD, founder of the Program Paghilom, of attempting to exploit his words for propaganda purposes.
He further stated that when the media presented his words in print, it painted him as a bad person.
Fr. Villanueva, in his presentation, mentioned that there were 120 individuals killed with a history of drug involvement, 80 individuals killed without any drug history, and reported zero cases of individuals caught using drugs during the act, as well as zero instances of resistance.
"329 pinaslang lahat, lahat ay may affidavit, lahat ay may patotoo," said Fr. Villanueva.
"Hindi dapat pinapalakpakan ang pumapatay. Dapat ito kinakalinga at hinihilom," he said in closing.
After mentioning these points, he proceeded to present a list of names of victims of extrajudicial killings that occurred during the campaign against illegal drugs implemented under Duterte's administration.
Sen. Dela Rosa questioned why Villanueva has not filed any cases regarding the victims of extrajudicial killings in the country, to which Villanueva promptly clarified that they had already filed several cases.
Dela Rosa apologized to the founder of Program Paghilom after his questioning and expressed his support in seeking justice for the mentioned victims.
