Bato's 'brilliant' question and the curious case of Joel Villanueva

THE POLITICAL HECKLER

- RONALD LLAMAS

Let's all give a round of applause to Senator Bato dela Rosa for his world-class police interrogation skills. A masterclass worth including in the "How not to shoot yourself in the foot" handbook.

At Monday's Senate probe on ghost projects, while Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto was questioning Sarah Discaya, owner of several controversial construction companies, Bato jumped in with a dazzling interjection. He asked when the companies began bagging those anomalous multi-billion flood control projects. Without hesitation, Discaya replied: 2016.

Yes, you read that right, 2016. The year Bato's dear master, now an ICC inmate, Rodrigo Duterte, sat in Malacañang. The year Bato became PNP chief. And the year, none other than his fellow senator, Mark Villar, was DPWH secretary. One can only imagine what went through Villar's head when Bato lobbed that grenade of a question. Epic.

The senator's brilliant question left him frozen, struck dumb like a cheap computer crashing from low memory. Of course, he could have gone further and asked why Duterte and his DPWH secretary failed to guard the nation's coffers. But no. Instead, in what looked like panic, he hurriedly yielded the floor back to Sotto.

And who could blame him? The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) confirmed that from July 2016 to December 2017, Discaya's St. Gerrard construction bagged P12.3 billion worth of contracts, making it the Duterte administration's top contractor. Still, who are we mortals to question the tactical brilliance of the former police chief? Perhaps it was all part of his genius strategy. Who needs the opposition when you have Bato who, in seconds, effectively linked the Dutertes to ghost projects?