Duterte to confront House for canceling hearing at last minute – Panelo

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Rodrigo Duterte will troop to the Batasang Pambansa complex on Wednesday to confront the officials of the House of Representatives’ quad committee for canceling the hearing on the drug war at the last minute, former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.

“PRRD (Duterte) and I will go to Batasang Pambansa tomorrow at 10:00 am and confront the quad committee members why after demanding his presence and accepting their invitation and coming here last night, they will just cancel it without prior notice,” Panelo’s statement on Tuesday read.

“He will ask them to schedule a marathon hearing of 10 days,” he added.

Quad committee lead presiding officer and Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers confirmed that they have decided to reschedule the hearing scheduled on Wednesday, November 13, to November 21.

Barbers said this was because the quad committee has to verify first the testimonies before conducting its next hearing.

READ: Quad comm reschedules drug war probe to verify testimonies

However, Duterte’s supporters like vlogger Mocha Uson claimed that the quad panel members were just afraid of the former president.

Barbers said had Duterte confirmed his attendance at the hearing before it was rescheduled, they would have pushed through with the inquiry.

“Well, if there is a confirmation like that, we will have to make do with the witnesses we have already interviewed. But we did not receive any confirmation. So that’s why we decided yesterday (Nov. 11) that we have to cancel it,” he explained.

“Because if we were informed [that Duterte would attend], we would push through. Never mind that we would only have a few witnesses to present, which is also good so that we will not hold a hearing up to the wee hours of the morning,” he added.

READ: Ex-president Duterte didn’t confirm quad comm probe attendance – Barbers

Barbers also clarified that the supposed confirmation of Duterte’s attendance came from bloggers backing the former president, and not from him or his legal counsel Martin Delgra III.

The quad panel has investigated the Duterte administration’s drug war due to alleged irregularities in police operations.

Revelations from former police officials, like retired colonel Royina Garma’s claims about the existence of a rewards system in the drug war, only bolstered the lawmakers’ belief that there were irregularities.

According to Garma, Duterte called her in 2016 about the creation of a task force that would implement the “Davao template” on a nationwide scale. The Davao template, Garma said, involved providing cash grants worth P20,000 to P1 million to cops who killed drug suspects.

READ: Garma says Davao drug war template, rewards system applied in entire PH

Garma also claimed that the Davao Death Squad, a team that Duterte supposedly crafted, was common knowledge among police officers in Davao.

At a Senate hearing last October 28, Duterte said he created a seven-man hit squad made up of gangsters when he was Davao City mayor, but he retracted his statement when senators asked for a clarification.

READ: Duterte admits to having ‘death squad,’ later insists it’s not one