THE two Congresses under the Duterte administration may have decided not to probe the excesses of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs for fear of being labeled “protectors,” a neophyte administration lawmaker said yesterday.
Zambales Rep. Jefferson Khonghun made the statement in reaction to Sen. Ronald dela Rosa’s observation that some of the congressmen who defended and hailed the war on drugs have suddenly become its staunch critics under the Marcos administration.
“Alam naman natin napakahirap magsalita, no? Against sa policy nung nakaraang administrasyon. Pag nagasalita ka against war on drugs, sasabihin protektor ka so naiintindihan natin ang mga miyembro ng previous Congresses kung bakit hindi sila makapagsalita (We all know it was really difficult to speak up then, right? It was against the policies of the previous administration. When you speak against the war on drugs, you’ll be labeled a protector, so we understand members of the previous Congress, why they failed to speak up),” Khonghun told a joint press conference with other House members.
Dela Rosa earlier called lawmakers from the House as “opportunistic” and “unprincipled,” an allegation which triggered a response from Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop — a former police general who is a vice chair of the four House committees investigating Duterte’s bloody war on drugs — who called Dela Rosa a “real opportunist” and a Duterte “lapdog.”
The four House committees, collectively known as the quad comm, is investigating the alleged links between Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), the illegal drugs trade and the extrajudicial killings tied to the Duterte administration’s controversial anti-drug campaign.
The quad comm, in a hearing in Pampanga last Friday, heard testimony from former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban, who implicated the former president’s son, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, his son-in-law Manases “Mans” Carpio — the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte — and his former economic adviser Michael Yang in the smuggling of P11 billion worth of shabu hidden in magnetic lifters at the Manila International Container Port in 2018.
Khonghun said that while he and his fellow neophyte lawmakers in the 19th Congress cannot question the directions taken by the two previous Congresses, “we are now very serious in investigating this to find out the truth on what really happened in the previous administration’s war on drugs.”
The 17th Congress was led by then Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a staunch Duterte ally who was eventually ousted by former President Gloria Arroyo who became Speaker in 2018, while the 18th Congress was led by another Duterte ally, then Speaker Alan Cayeteno, who was replaced by Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco in 2020.
Rep. Jude Acidre (PL, Tingog) told the same press conference that the previous House leaderships obviously could not go against the policies of the Executive department under Duterte.
“One thing in the previous administration, paano mo naman kokontrahin ang isang bagay, official, na paulit-ulit, paulit-ulit sinasabi ng pinakamataas na leader ng ating bansa noong nakaraang administrasyon? Paano naman natin kokontrahin ang isang pinakita na state policy nung nakaraang administrasyon? Siguro ito yung mga pangamba, ito ‘yung mga naghindi sa mga naunang Kongreso na hindi i-review, hindi silipin itong situation ng EJK (One thing in the previous administration, how could you oppose one thing, an official policy, that was repeatedly stated by the top leader of the country in the previous administration? How can we oppose a state policy of the previous administration? That’s probably the fear of those who decided not to review the situation of EJKs),” he said.
Acidre, however, said lawmakers are now confident that the truth behind the issue will be uncovered under the leadership of President Marcos Jr. and Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Lanao del Norte Rep. Khalid Dimaporo said the public has to understand that while House members can file resolutions seeking to investigate various issues, it is the leadership that decides if the matter will be heard by the appropriate committees or not.
“So in the previous Congresses I was part of, we follow our leader, ganyan talaga (that’s the way it is), and we really have to appreciate the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez you cannot say na (that) nobody worked again, about this, bringing attention to the war on drugs,” he said. “(The) Makabayan (bloc) was fighting for it but they were never given a chance to really conduct a full-blown public hearing on it. That did not happen under the time of Speaker Romualdez. All of us are given the freedom to do our jobs even the minority and the Makabayan bloc.”
Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing, for her part, said even the prosecution of EJK cases did not move much during the Duterte administration, the reason why the families of the victims of summary executions went to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating Duterte’s alleged “crimes against humanity.”
“The environment at that time was not conducive of all these hearings and investigations,” she said. “So siguro yun din po yung makikita nating basehan na kinailangan pa na gumalaw yung ICC para po maimbestigahan yung mga ganitong mga akusasyon (So that’s also the reason we’re seeing as to why the ICC had to move to investigate the accusations.”
Konghun also dismissed the Vice President’s claim that the House’s probe is “political harassment,” saying her brother and husband should just attend the quad comm hearings “because Congress cannot just turn silent when her brother and husband are implicated.”
“Madali naman humarap sa quad comm si Cong. Pulong, part siya ng Kongreso. Madali siyang pumunta sa hearing at i-defend ‘yung kanyang sarili (It’s easy for Cong. Pulong to face the quad comm, he’s a member of Congress. He can easily attend and defend himself),” he said. “Pati rin naman si Atty. Mans, ‘yung asawa ni VP Sara, pu-pwede rin humarap para linisin iyong kanilang mga pangalan (Even Atty. Mans, VP Sara’s husband, can also face us to clear his name).”
For her part, Iloilo Rep. Julienne Baronda called on the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the PNP to immediately comply with the quad comm’s order for it to provide official records to prove the ex-president’s statements during his presidency that Iloilo City was the most “shabulized” city in the country.
During the early days of the war on drugs, Duterte branded Iloilo City as the “bedrock of illegal drugs” and tagged the city’s former mayor, Jed Mabilog, as a drug protector and a narco-politician.
Mabilog has categorically denied the claims but the continuing threats from Duterte prompted him to flee the country for fear of his life.
Baronda pointed out that the elder Duterte’s statements were later on contradicted by then PDEA-Region VI Regional Director Gil Pabilona when he stated during a public forum in 2017 that Mabilog was never included in the list of drug protectors.
