The House committee on human rights intends to invite billionaire businessman Charlie ‘Atong’ Ang and actress-businesswoman Gretchen Barretto to its investigation into the disappearance of 34 cockfighting enthusiasts under the Duterte administration.
When asked during an Aug. 29 Bilyonaryo TV interview, panel chairman Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. replied, “I believe so. Later on, we will summon him since he was charged with murder. Even I think Gretchen Baretto.”
The Patidongan brothers, as well as the 18 policemen supposedly involved in the case of the missing sabungeros, would also be invited, he said.
Patidongan and the kin of the missing sabungeros have linked Ang, Barretto, and the police officers to the disappearance of the 34 e-sabong enthusiasts.
Those being accused strongly denied the allegations.
Abante expressed disappointment over how the investigation of the government agencies into the missing sabungeros’ case is being conducted.
“No, I’m not happy… In fact, I told them… because look, the Department of Justice is investigating, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group is investigating, and the National Police Commission is also investigating. But so far, none has been charged in court,” he said.
“And one more thing, even if the forensics of the Philippine National Police uncovered 401 human bones (in Taal Lake), where the sabungeros’ bodies were allegedly dumped), they have not actually given us any DNA match of the missing sabungeros. So I said, if there is no such thing, if there is none, there will be no case. No case,” he added.
He said he does not know the status of the separate investigation of the DOJ, CIDG, and Napolcom.
He lamented that the inquiry is alive only when the case is being played up in the media.
“I don’t know if it stopped or actually nothing happened to it yet, so we’re gonna continue it… that was in the media for about a week. (After that) All has been forgotten. If we do not talk about it in a briefing, that is the only time that it would be raised in the media,” he said.
“So we’d like to continue it. This is exactly a human rights violation (issue). Just imagine, I was even questioning them why do you only have 34 listed when you have been telling us that there are 100 of them thrown into Taal Lake. So I was thinking maybe the others were not dumped at Taal Lake, maybe in different places,” he said.
