House leaders expressed wariness over the reported plan of former President Rodrigo Duterte to finally face the Quad Comm today (Wednesday) to answer questions on his bloody war on drugs.
Quad Comm chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte said the mega-panel sent a notice of cancellation of today’s hearing to Duterte’s lawyer, Martin Delgra III, at 10:53 p.m. Monday.
He said Delgra acknowledged receipt of the notice at 7:14 a.m. Tuesday.
Barbers said vloggers claimed on social media that Duterte will attend the hearing after the announcement of the cancellation, and that the committee received no formal response from Duterte or his camp of his attendance.
He, however, expressed hope the former President would accept another invitation to attend the Quad Comm inquiry on November 21 or any day after that at his convenience.
House Assistant Majority Leader Jay Khonghun said: “If our former President doesn’t really have a direct statement that he will come (today), we think that what is appearing on the internet, on social media, that he will come, is just propaganda.”
Barbers said Duterte or his lawyer should have formally communicated to Quad Comm his supposed acceptance of the panel’s invitation for today’s hearing before it was cancelled.
The panel postponed the hearing to allow it to interview and vet more witnesses, he said.
“That’s all the information we’re waiting for. So if it’s announced on social media, you won’t go anywhere. That seems like disrespect to our invitation system,” he said.
“Of course we appreciate if our former president will attend because that is the request of our colleague in the Quad Comm to have a discussion, to have an exchange of ideas about the matter of extrajudicial killings and the matter of drugs which is the centerpiece of the campaign of our previous administration,” Barbers added.
He took exception to comments from vloggers that the Quad Comm chickened out by postponing its hearing.
Quad Comm co-chairman Rep. Dan Fernandez of Santa Rosa City said an invited resource person has to officially inform the joint panel of his or her acceptance.
“Don’t respond through social media because it’s not formal… So I hope prior to the Nov. 21 hearing, somebody or the lawyer of the former President will write the committee for his attendance,” Fernandez added.
As this developed, Senator Risa Hontiveros reiterated her call for the Philippines to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a state party to correct the mistakes made during the Duterte administration.
“The President can correct a monumental mistake by letting the Philippines rejoin as a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Hontiveros said.
“In the first place, the withdrawal from the ICC was prompted only by the selfish interests of former President Duterte. To save himself, he sacrificed the country’s welfare and took from the Filipinos a very important mechanism of justice.”
“If President Marcos truly cares about justice and the rule of law, hopefully, he will rectify the wrong of Duterte and return the country to the ICC,” Hontiveros added.
