<\/p>\n
FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday skipped the 9th hearing of the House Quad Committee that is looking into extrajudicial killings (EJKs) linked to his bloody anti-drug war.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lead Committee chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte wrote the former President last October 18 to invite him to attend the inquiry \u201cto provide valuable insights and shed light on the issues under discussion particularly on extrajudicial killings.\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Barbers, who chairs the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, furnished Duterte with a copy of the agenda. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, on Monday, Duterte\u2019s lawyer Martin Delgra lll wrote Barbers that his client, the former President, could not attend Tuesday\u2019s hearing because he was not feeling well.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, despite his keen intention to attend, my client respectfully manifests that he cannot attend the public hearing set on October 22, 2024. Aside from the short notice given him, my client just arrived in Davao from Metro Manila last October 17, 2024. Considering his advanced age and the recent engagements he had to attend, he is currently not feeling well and is in need of much rest. Hence, my client respectfully requests to defer his appearance before the Honorable Committee scheduled tomorrow (Tuesday),\u201d Delgra said in his letter.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He assured the joint panel \u201cof my client\u2019s willingness to appear before the House of Representatives on some other available date, preferably after November 1, 2024.\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Delgra served as chairman of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board during the Duterte administration.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the eve of Tuesday\u2019s hearing, Barbers and his three Quad Comm co-chairmen said they expected the former President to attend the inquiry, take his oath to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and answer questions, unlike his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte who skipped recent committee and plenary deliberations on the 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n They said they would like to hear him comment on testimonies linking him to the August 2016 murders inside the Davao prison of three high-profile Chinese drug lords and the explosive revelations of senior police officers close to him, including former colonel and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Royina Garma, who confirmed the existence of an EJK reward system that paid up to P1 million for every high-profile drug suspect assassinated.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was retiring police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, the Duterte administration\u2019s poster boy on the war on drugs, who disclosed the reward system.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Espenido said the scheme was funded by collections from jueteng and other illegal gambling activities, Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), intelligence funds and proceeds from PCSO\u2019s notorious small-town lottery operations.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He said the money \u201cflowed from the level of Duterte close aide, Sen. Bong Go.\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Quad Comm chairmen said they would also like the former President to talk about an alleged meeting he had, also in 2016, with senior police officers in which the EJK \u201cDavao template\u201d or model was discussed.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A few weeks after the meeting, the drug suspect killing spree by rouge policemen and riding-in-tandem hitmen started in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For human rights committee chairman Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., he would like to hear in particular Duterte\u2019s explanation on the need to kill suspects in his administration\u2019s anti-drug campaign.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBakit kailangang patayin \u2018yung suspect? Bakit kailangang pumatay ng libu-libo, mahigit na 20,000 suspect?\u201d he asked.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n More than 20,000 is the estimate of human rights groups, though the official count of the Duterte administration is about 6,000.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno told Abante\u2019s committee in June this year that in the first 17 months of the Duterte administration alone, 20,322 drug suspects had already been killed.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere has been much debate on how many persons have been killed in the war on drugs during the last administration\u2026But there is one number that is unassailable because this comes from the Office of the President and was cited in an extended resolution of the Supreme Court,\u201d Diokno said.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd that number is 20,322 persons killed in the war on drugs. That number of 20,322 persons killed is only from the period of July 1, 2016, up to November 27, 2017. This is found in the 2017 year-end accomplishment report of the Office of the President and was cited in the resolution of the Supreme Court of April 3, 2018,\u201d he said. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday skipped the 9th hearing of the House Quad Committee that is looking into extrajudicial killings (EJKs) linked to his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9472,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470\/revisions\/9472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}