Quad Comm findings show Rody, cohorts benefitted from drug trade

Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs allegedly served as a cover for a “grand criminal enterprise” and systemic corruption involving high-ranking government officials and international drug trafficking networks, the House Quad Committee said.

The House committee’s senior vice chairperson, Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, said the mega panel’s initial findings indicated that Duterte and his inner circle allegedly enabled and profited from the drug trade they had publicly vowed to eliminate.

“The Quad Comm has started to uncover a grand criminal enterprise, and, it would seem that at the center of it is former President Duterte. This is truly hurtful because it seems we were all taken for a ride,” Acop said.

He said the Duterte administration’s most trusted officials wielded both the “purse and the sword” and weaponized these both for personal and political gain.

“It is most unfortunate that the sword was used to slit, stab, and slash the very people it swore to protect and the Purse was used not to benefit the Republic but to line the pockets of the few. They drowned our country with drugs, and they benefited from this,” Acop added.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said Duterte’s economic adviser, Michael Yang, “may be one of the biggest ‘budol’ (frauds) who posed as a legitimate businessman.”

“Behind all of his businesses, he used our officials so that he could ship tons of illegal drugs into our country in the guise of being a legit investor. So that, for me, is really how we were duped,” Barbers said.

The Quad Committee’s partial findings will be submitted to the House plenary on December 17.

Acop, for his part, cited the testimony of former police intelligence officer Col. Eduardo Acierto, who categorically named Duterte and Senators Christopher Go and Ronald dela Rosa as “integral personalities in protecting the illegal drugs network in the Philippines.”

“Worse, they served as key figures in ensuring that large volumes of illegal drugs slip right through our borders. And where is Col. Acierto now? He’s in hiding because former President Duterte wants him dead,” said Acop, a lawyer and former police general.

Dela Rosa was the former national police chief during the Duterte administration while Go served as the former President’s special assistant.

“This is very painful because President Digong won on the platform of a hardline stance against illegal drugs and criminality, but he turned out to be the face of illegal drugs and criminality,” Acop said.

Acop also highlighted what he described as a “perverse” reward system that fueled the wave of alleged extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s drug war.

Rewards ranged from P20,000 to P1 million, as testified by former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Royina Garma and corroborated by former National Police Commission head Edilberto Leonardo.

“The existence of the rewards system is not denied; in fact, former president Duterte and his cohorts even boasted about it,” Acop said.

“It appears the war on drugs was a convenient way to eliminate competition in the drug trade. More specifically, the local manufacturers,” he added.