THE House Quad Committee (quad-comm) will hold hearings even during the upcoming recess in order to allow congressmen to get to the bottom of the interconnected issues of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), illegal drugs, money-laundering and the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the previous Duterte administration.
This was bared by quad-comm co-chairman Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr., one of the co-chairmen of the mega-panel.
“Yes in fact we will continue on kahit break sapagkat nakita po namin iyung involvement ng isang sindikato at nakita rin po natin na napakalaki ng involvement ng ilang mga heneral dito. Unless otherwise mabuwag natin at makita natin sa loob ng Philippine National Police (PNP) ang mga heneral na involve sa drugs, hindi mawawala ang drug problem sa Pilipinas,” Abante said.
The quad-comm has so far carried out six marathon hearings, and the trail uncovered by Abante and his fellow House members so far has been long and wide.
The Manila lawmaker, who chairs the House Committee on Human Rights, said it will take more time for them to exposed everything that needs to be exposed.
“Palagay ko mahaba-haba pa we would like to finish that kasi malapit na ang filing [ng certificates of candidacy] di ba? You know ‘pag nag-file ka parang campaign period na ‘yan so talagang sabi ko nga e we have to be in our owm district para mag barangay na kami pero still we really have to finish this job,” he said.
“At tatapusin po natin itong trabahong ito sapagkat ito po ay para sa ating bayan at malaman po nila ang mga nagyayari. We do not want this to happen anymore kawawa po ang Pilipinas,” added Abante.
The quad-comm is coming off its sixth hearing wherein it listened to the explosive testimony of former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.
“Ang next hearing will be this week, ang pag-uusapan naman EJK. Maganda ito sapagkat ito ‘yung binabanggit ninyo tungkol kay Jed Mabilog, eh we are going to invite him again,” Abante said.
In the same interview, Abante took the liberty to identify the late Camilo Cascolan as the PNP general who essentially save Mabilog’s life by telling him not to come back to the Philippines amid his being included in then-president Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s narco-list.
Cascolan’s advice came at the same time as then-PNP chief and now Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s prodding of Mabilog to return to the Philippines so that the latter could supposedly help the beleaguered mayor.
Abante said that it was also Cascolan who claimed that Mabilog would be forced to implicate former Senators Mar Roxas and Franklin Drilon in the illegal drug trade at the time of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
It’s very unfortunate, however, that Cascolan has already passed away, meaning the quad-comm can no longer hear his full side of the story.
“Yun ang nakakalungkot dun eh dahil hindi na namin pwede ipatawag dahil pumanaw na siya. ‘Yun ang isang bagay na nakakalungkot talaga,” he said.
Mabilog mentioned the name of at least one more high-ranking PNP official in his testimony.
“Mayroong isang former colonel yata, I think it’s Colonel Diaz na sinabi kay Mabilog na, sige tatawagan ka ni General [Bato] Dela Rosa para mag-usap kayong dalawa. Baka patawag din namin ‘yun,” said the co-chairman.
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