A CO- CHAIR of the House Quad Committee on Monday reiterated his challenge to Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Lawrence “Bong” Go to preserve the credibility of the Senate probe into former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s bloody war on drugs by recusing themselves from the inquiry.
“I am appealing to their sense of delicadeza, since based on the numerous pieces of evidence our Quad Committee has unearthed in its comprehensive inquiry into the anti-drug campaign of the previous administration, they are the principal implementers of the brutal campaign against drugs,” said Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez, chairman of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety, after the two senators participated in the Senate investigation Monday.
The House leader called on Senate President Francis Escudero and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel lll to advise their two colleagues to stay away from the Senate investigation.
“We believe in the sense of fairness of SP Escudero and Sen. Pimentel and the impartiality of their investigation. However, we believe that the inquiry will be tainted if Senators dela Rosa and Go continue to get themselves involved in it,” he said.
Fernandez said Dela Rosa, as then Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, was the purportedly the overall in charge of the campaign, while Go, based on testimonies of retired senior police officers, was allegedly in charge of the reward system linked to extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under which up to P1 million was paid to every rogue policeman or hired gun responsible for the killing of every high value drug suspect.
“In those roles, they are directly or indirectly responsible for the tens of thousands of drug suspects and innocent people, including young children, killed in the course of the Duterte administration’s anti-drug war,” he said.
He added that Dela Rosa and Go cannot thus be expected to participate in the Senate inquiry in an impartial and unbiased manner.
Fernandez cited in particular the testimonies of retired colonels Jovie Espenido and Royina Garma, supported by retired National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, that the EJK reward system indeed existed, and that the Duterte administration’s anti-drug war was patterned after Davao City’s EJK-reward model during the long years that Duterte was its mayor.
Espenido and Garma have testified that EJK rewards “flowed from the level of (Duterte aide) Sen. Bong Go.”
Espenido said the system was funded by intelligence funds and proceeds from jueteng and other illegal gambling activities, Philippine offshore gaming operators and from the notorious small-town lotteries of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), previously headed by Garma.
Irmina Espino also known as “Muking,” a close aide of Go since his time as Duterte’s principal assistant in Davao City until Duterte’s time as president, allegedly dispensed funds for EJK rewards.
He lauded Pimentel for declaring that his panel should “follow the evidence” and for taking judicial or public notice of the testimonies given by witnesses and resource persons in the Quad Comm inquiry.
“These witnesses have tagged Senators dela Rosa and Go as principally responsible for the anti-drug war and the reward system. I am sure that similar accusations will be hurled against them if the Senate invites relevant resource persons,” he said.
In this case, what happens to Pimentel’s declaration that his panel’s inquiry would go where the evidence leads it? he asked.
“Where will that put Senators dela Rosa and Go? They will of course become senator-accused or senator-suspects,” he said
