A Quad Committee co-chairperson on Tuesday urged former president Rodrigo Duterte to face the panel and tell the truth about his administration’s bloody anti-drug war and the thousands of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) victims that resulted from his administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.
“If he was physically well to attend the Senate inquiry on Monday, he should have no excuse to skip our next hearing,” said House Human Rights Committee chairman and Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr.
Duterte was unable to appear at the Quad Comm’s 9th hearing on Oct. 22 as the former president’s lawyer, Martin Delgra lll, informed the joint panel that Duterte was not feeling well and needed to rest. On Monday, the former president appeared to be in good health in his appearance at the Senate inquiry.
“We expect the former president to show up in our next hearing. We have many questions to ask him about his war on drugs and the deaths that resulted from it. We believe his answers will give us a more complete picture of the EJKs,” said Abante.
“Maraming reklamo laban sa kanya at sa kanyang drug war implementers, pati ang kanyang PNP chief, si Sen. Bato dela Rosa. Nasa record ng Quad Comm ‘yan, kaya gusto naming marinig ang panig nila. ‘Yun ang tamang proseso, hindi yung mauuna yung depensa sa reklamo,” he added.
Upon the insistence of Dela Rosa and Duterte’s close aide Sen. Lawrence “Bong” Go and Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, the Senate investigating panel chaired by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel lll gave priority to Duterte’s opening statement before hearing the complaints of families and relatives of EJK victims.
Abante said Duterte’s admission of the existence of a death squad in Davao City affirms testimonies given to Quad Comm that anti-drug war implementers followed the “Davao model” or “template” in carrying out the nationwide campaign against drug suspects.
Based on these testimonies, he said Duterte met with senior police officers in 2016 to discuss the Davao EJK model. Dela Rosa and Go reportedly attended the meeting at the regional office of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
However, Abante said the statements given by senior police officers to Quad Comm and those obtained by the International Criminal Court from former death squad members like Arturo Lascanas contradict Duterte’s Senate assertion that the killers were not police personnel but gangsters.
According to these officers, the death squad was composed mostly of rogue members of the police force. The officers also exposed a well-funded EJK reward system under which up to P1 million was paid for every high value drug suspect killed. They testified that funds flowed from the level of (Duterte aide) Sen. Bong Go.
The lawmaker also criticized Dela Rosa for taking advantage of the Pimentel panel’s hearing to extensively explain his role in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs and justify EJKs as well as the deaths of innocent children.
“The way he sounded, he was more of a senator-suspect or senator-respondent. There was nothing wrong with that, but he should have seated himself with his former boss, who wanted to be called a witness instead of a resource person. That would have been more appropriate than sitting with the investigating panel in order to defend his actions,” explained Abante.
Abante pointed out, however, that unlike Duterte, “Dela Rosa did not take an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
“The validity of what seemed to be his interminable explanations and defenses was also not subjected to questioning. No one questioned him, no one challenged his version of that facts nor his assertions,” lamented the solon.
Abante noted that Dela Rosa even enlisted the help of three or four of his successors as PNP chief to explain the use of the words “neutralization” and “negate” in the command circular he issued in 2016 on carrying out the war on drugs.
“It is only now that they are explaining this vague language, which policemen, based on testimonies given to Quad Comm, interpreted to mean the killing of suspects. One former PNP chief even opined that it meant ‘huwag patayin kaagad (ang suspect),” he said.
Abante said the use of “neutralize” and “negate” in Dela Rosa’s circular resulted in thousands of EJKs.
“Neutralization. That’s what happened to the late Mayor Espinosa (of Albuera, Leyte, a drug suspect named in Duterte’s drug list), who was already in jail when policemen killed him. Ito din ang nangyari sa libu-libong kababayan natin na hindi binigyang ng due process.”
