By Rodolfo Dacleson II
(August 23, 2024) – The quad-committee of the House of Representatives on Friday challenged former president Rodrigo Duterte and his allies to prove that his previous statements of killing drug personalities were jokes only.
Sta. Rosa, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez and Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers called out the former chief executive after the revelations by convicted hitmen Leopoldo Tan Jr. and Fernando Magdadaro during the recent House hearing.
“This is the right moment for the former administration, especially to its former officials and the former president, to justify that they were correct in saying that the pronouncements of the former president were all jokes or strong words but are not real,” said Fernandez in a media release.
Fernandez, who chairs the committee on public order and safety, furthered that the officials and allies of Duterte would always defend him during his heavy-handed rule, saying he was just joking.
“We still remember the time when the former president was always saying, ‘Papapatayin kita, maihulog kita sa helicopter’—things like that,” he added.
Last Thursday, Tan and Magdadaro detailed how they killed alleged Chinese drug lords Chu Kin Tung, Li Lan Yan, and Wong Meng Pin in the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in August 2016 under Duterte’s order.
ALSO READ: 2 PDLs link ex-president Duterte in 2016 Davao killings of 3 alleged Chinese drug lords
Barbers, meanwhile, stressed that their testimonies cannot be ignored since other inmates are also willing to testify about the killings during the implementation of the bloody war on drugs, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
“We evaluated the situation and sought legal experts for comments, and we saw that their testimony has value because their testimonies are very serious,” said Barbers, who’s also the chairman of the committee on dangerous drugs.
The quad-committee, which is also composed of the committees on human rights and public accounts, is investigating the links between extrajudicial killings, the drug trade, and Philippine offshore gaming operators to the deadly drug war.
Duterte, Sen. Bato Dela Rosa, and several police officials are also being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly committing crimes against humanity during the merciless campaign.
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