CLAIM: Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa has been removed from office.
RATING: FALSE
Multiple online posts falsely claim that Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa has been removed from his post following months of unexplained absence.
Flagged content: Multiple similar graphic cards circulating across Facebook falsely claim that Dela Rosa has been officially ousted from the Senate.
- It mimicked layouts typically used by news outlets and had the headline, “Bato Dela Rosa, tinanggal na sa Senado matapos ang 4 buwag pagabsent.” (Bato Dela Rosa, removed from the Senate after a four-month absence.)
- One of the posts includes a logo that supposedly belongs “Politoks News TV” logo, but is actually an edited GMA News TV logo.
- The photo of Dela Rosa used in the false news card was a file photo from the news website Rappler.
Our debunk: The official website of the Senate of the Philippines still lists Dela Rosa as an incumbent senator of the 20th Congress.
- On Feb. 18, Sen. Robinhood Padilla replaced Dela Rosa as a member of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
- The following week, he was ousted as a member of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights and was replaced by Sen. Joel Villanueva.
- The senate website still lists Dela Rosa as the Chair for the Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization, and Professional Regulation.
Rewind: Dela Rosa has strayed away from the public eye since early November 2025 after word of an arrest warrant against him surfaced in relation to his role in the Duterte administration’s drug war.
- He was named by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as one of the indirect co-perpetrators in the alleged crimes against humanity committed by former President Rodrigo Duterte.
- On his 64th birthday, Dela Rosa said in a Facebook post that he is alive and well, addressing the ICC threat and pushing back against his critics.
- On March 12, he requested use of the Senate Mansion for his family but was subsequently denied by Senate leadership.
Why we fact-checked this: The claim pushed by these repetitive posts has the potential to pull public attention away from more important developments.
- It delivered a false conclusion that Dela Rosa has been penalized for his continued absence.
Spot the fake: Check through the official channels of the Senate, and this would have been reported by major news outlets. Nikko Balbedina with reports from Amir Khalil C. Sioson
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