The Quad Committee looking into extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration, among other issues, on Friday cited a commissioner of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) in contempt and ordered his detention at the House of Representatives premises in Quezon City.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, lead chairperson of the panel, announced the approval of the motion of Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Stephen Joseph Paduano to cite Napolcom Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo in contempt for “evading and lying to the joint committee.”
After Paduano’s motion was approved, Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop moved to have Leonardo detained at the House premises “until the joint committee would finish its report.”
Leonardo is a former police colonel assigned in Davao City and was appointed to Napolcom by former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Paduano asked the former police colonel about a meeting in Davao City that Leonardo supposedly attended a few days before two inmates murdered three Chinese drug lords inside the Davao Penal Farm and Prison in August 2016—just two weeks after Duterte assumed office.
The drug lords were killed allegedly upon the former President’s orders.
Former police Major Jimmy Fortaleza, retired police Col. Royina Garma and former Davao prison warden Supt. Gerado Padilla have testified that the meeting took place during which instructions and arrangements for the killing of the three Chinese nationals were allegedly discussed.
Paduano asked Fortaleza, Garma and Padilla to confirm their testimonies, who asserted that there was such a meeting.
Garma and Leonardo supposedly told Padilla, as prison warden, to no longer intervene as arrangements had already been made for the three drug lords. However, when Paduano confronted Leonardo about the meeting, the latter denied it took place.
The lawmaker repeatedly asked his question but the former police colonel insisted there was no such meeting. It was at this point that Paduano accused Leonardo of lying and moved to have him cited in contempt.
Paduano and Acop later questioned Garma, Leonardo, Colonels Lito Patay, Hector Grijaldo, Jr. about a meeting in June 2016, before Duterte assumed office, in which they supposedly discussed a “Davao template,” apparently for extrajudicial killings (EJK).
Garma and Leonardo confirmed the meeting at the second floor of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) building in Davao City.
Paduano said former President Duterte, his aide and now Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go, and former PNP chief Ronaldo dela Rosa, also now a senator, were present in the event.
While Garma recalled that the “Davao template” was discussed, Leonardo could not recall if it was taken up. Leonardo confirmed seeing Go at the meeting venue.
On the part of Patay, he told the joint panel he did not attend the meeting. His absence was confirmed by Garma. The event was a courtesy call of PNPA Class 96 and 97 on the former President.
Paduano said weeks after the discussions at the DPWH in Davao City, a string of EJKs were perpetrated not only in Davao City but in parts of Metro Manila, including Parañaque City.
