Andrea del Rosario clarifies, laughs off viral pic with Bato dela Rosa

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MANILA, Philippines — Actress-entrepreneur Andrea del Rosario is humorously backtracking her association with Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa after posting a photo with the embattled senator.

Over the weekend the former Viva Hot Babes member posted on her Instagram stories a photo of Bato in between her and husband Anthony Garcia.

"Thanks for dropping by, sir!" del Rosario wrote in white text above emojis for waving and the Philippine flag.

The Instagram story expired after 24 hours but some Filipinos managed to capture screenshots which circulated on other social media platforms.

The senator is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court as a co-conspirator in the tribunal's charges against former president Rodrigo Duterte, who was arrested last year and has since been incarcerated at The Hague.

Bato vanished from the public eye after talks of the warrant first circulated last November, reemerging last May 11 to take part in a coup to overthrow Senate President Tito Sotto and install Alan Peter Cayetano as the new leader of the upper House.

A gun shooting incident in the Senate premises later in the week resulted in Bato evading arrest yet again and to date has not resurfaced publicly.

Related: 'Strava reveal': Agot Isidro, Jake Ejercito react to Bato dela Rosa running video

As such, some Filipinos were shocked to see Andrea's photo with Bato, even speculating she may now be a "person of interest" for his whereabouts.

In now-deleted comments on Instagram, the former vice-mayor of Calatagan, Batangas clarified that the picture was from years ago and she was only trying to be funny.

"Guys, the photo with Bato???? That’s an old photo... maybe 3 years ago! It was a memory that showed up, and I reposted," Andrea said. "Just riding the issue for the memes! Lol didn’t know that it would blow up!"

A 2025 post on the actress' Threads account shows her posting the same photo greeting Bato for his 63rd birthday.

Andrea doubled down on the humor by posting on her Facebook account, "Lahat ng may photo w Bato, lahat kayo for questioning daw!"

She even responded to several comments asking about Bato that they had to ask Ding, a reference to local heroine "Darna," and posted a photo of her with Garcia calling him "Bato."

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