The House of Representatives broke new ground in 2024 when for the first time since its establishment, it consolidated four separate committees to investigate Philippine overseas gaming operators (POGOs), Chinese crime syndicates, the narcotics trade, and extra-judicial killings during the previous administration into a single panel called the “Quad Comm.”
Lawmakers made this decision after realizing there was a common thread tying all those issues together – the Duterte administration.
The four committees and their chairmen were Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of the Committee on Dangerous Drugs, Rep. Bienvenido Abante of the Committee on Human Rights, Rep. Dan Fernandez of the Committee on Public Order and Safety, and Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano of the House Committee on Public Accounts.
The QuadComm was constituted on August 12, 2024, to collectively examine and deliberate, via thorough and unified discussions, on the interrelated and complex issues during public hearings on EJKs, POGOs, and illegal drugs.
The Quad Comm held a series of hearings where it compelled big personalities like former President Rodrigo Duterte, dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, retired colonel and former PCSO chair Royina Garma, among others to appear before the mega panel to give their testimonies which helped the panel to recommended the filing of crimes against humanity against Duterte, along with Senators Christopher Lawrence Go and Ronaldo Dela Rosa, two former chiefs of the Philippine National Police and two other ranking police officers in connection with the alleged extra-judicial killings of more than 30,000 victims during the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
Before Congress went on Holiday break last Dec. 18, Barbers, the QuadComm overall chair, reported to the plenary the mega panel’s recommendation that was contained in a 43-page progress report, compiled from 13 hearings from August 16 to December 12 this year. It outlined the facts established, evidence gathered, actions taken, and recommendations for remedial legislations concerning EJKs, illegal drugs, illegal POGOs, and anomalous transactions involving local government units in various unlawful activities.
The House is expected to adopt the QuadComm’s recommendations when it resumes session in January 2025,. If approved in the plenary, the chamber would later provide a copy of the report to the Department of Justice and other agencies concerned which shall be tasked to conduct further investigation, gather evidence, and build up a case against the personalities concerned.
The QuadComm said once prima facie evidence is established, the DOJ and other agencies concerned shall file the appropriate charges in court.
Apart from Duterte, Go and Dela Rosa, five other police officers were recommended to be filed with charges under section 6 (other crimes against humanity) of Republic Act 9851, also known as the “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and other Crimes against Humanity. They were former PNP chiefs Oscar David Albayalde and Debold Sinas; Garma and Edilberto Leonardo and Palace aide Herminia “Muking” Espino.
Enacted in 2009, or two years before the Philippines became a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, RA 9851 defines and punishes crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Former Sen. Leila De Lima, who appeared as a resource person in several Quadcom hearings, said that RA 9851 holds not just the direct perpetrators responsible, but also those in leadership positions who order and induce such crimes.
During the 9th hearing of Quadcom, she explained that RA 9851, enacted two years before the Philippines became a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), covers the systematic killings under Duterte’s drug war.
Garma, a former trusted officer of Duterte, disclosed the Duterte administration’s Davao Model on rewards system to officers involved in EJKs, the Davao Death Squad, the killing of three suspected Chinese drug lords inside the Davao Penal Colony on Duterte’s orders, the formation of a national drug task force which implemented the bloody drug war, among others.
Barbers earlier said when former President Duterte attended the 11th Quadcom hearing last November 13, the latter confirmed the existence of the so-called Davao Death Squad, the Davao Template or Model of reward system to police offices involved in EJKs, advising and encouraging officers to have “nanlaban” (goaded to fight back) scenarios against drug suspects, and assumed “full legal responsibility” of the bloody drug war aftermath.
“The former President unequivocally confirmed the existence of the reward system targeting drug personalities and using leftover campaign funds to finance and support the reward system, in contravention of Comelec rules concerning the return of excess campaign funds,” the lawmaker from Mindanao said, citing the Quadcom panel progress report.
The Quadcom reports said that despite the “noises” being made by some quarters identified with the Duterte camp, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), in a study, said the bloody drug war during the previous administration resulted only in a slight decline in the number of drug users in the country.
The QuadComm report stated the joint panel has filed four (4) bills to immediately address some legislative gaps on certain laws, and they include HB No. 10986 or an Act classifying EJKs as a Heinous Crime; HB No. 10987 or an Act Prohibiting HB No. 10987 or an Act Prohibiting All Forms of POGOs in the country; HB No. 11043 or an Act Providing for a Civil Forfeiture in Favor of the State any Unlawfully Acquired Real Estate Properties by any Foreign National, and HB No. 11117 or an Act Providing for Administrative Cancellation of Birth Certificates Registered Through Fraudulent Means by Foreign Nationals.
The issue on POGOs and its links to illegal drugs flourished during a September 23, 2023 seizure of some 560 kgs of shabu worth P3.6 billion at a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga which turned out to be owned by Empire 999 Realty Corporation led by a suspected Chinese drug lord identified as Willie Ong (Cai Qimeng).
The Quad Comm investigations indicated that Ong is a Chinese national with a questionable background. When his firm was scrutinized by Barber’s dangerous drugs panel, it revealed that it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with fellow Chinese nationals as incorporators using fake Filipino identities.
Empire 999, based on reports have acquired at least 290 clean lot titles in different localities, including huge tracks of lands in Pampanga. They are now subject of forfeiture proceedings being initiated by the DOJ, LRA and OSG in favor of the government.
Upon further probe of Ong’s SEC documents, it revealed that his business partners, among them Aedy Yang, a brother of Duterte’s economic adviser Michael Yang, Rose Nono Lin, Allan Lin, Lincoln Ong, were also involved or incorporators of interlocking companies that were also involved in POGO operations.
When Quadcom was formed in August 2024 to conduct joint legislative inquiry on POGOs, EJKs and illegal drugs, the other names that later cropped up and found to have links to Ong and his Empire 999 firm include Bamban Mayor Alice Guo’s Baofu, and Cassandra Li Ong’s Whirlwind Corp.
Thereafter, the Quadcom inquiry blossomed into a full-blown investigations and witnesses and documents summoned and gathered revealed more names of personalities that were believed to have links or direct involvement in POGOs, illegal drugs and EJKs.
The probe also uncovered the various illegal activities of POGO, manned mostly by Chinese workers, who were involved in various criminal activities such as murder, kidnapping, wire fraud, torture, illegal drugs, money laundering, among other criminal endeavors.
The POGO entities found to be involved on said criminal activities include Zun Yuan Technology, Inc., Baofu Compound, Bamban, Tarlac; Lucky South 99 Outsourcing Inc. in Porac, Pampanga; Empire 999; Lucky South 999; Brickhartz Technology; Xionwei Technology Co. Ltd, among others.
Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr, who is a subject of Quadcom on his POGO links, is now in hiding abroad after the panel cited him in contempt for alleged lying and failure to provide documents he promised to deliver relative to his Biancham firm’s mysterious rise in assets from P125,300 in 2014 to P67 million in 2018.
Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes III, who appeared at the Quadcom hearing last Nov. 13, challenged Duterte to sign a bank waiver after claiming that the latter, his daughter VP Sara Duterte and son Paulo “Pulong” Duterte, has received money from suspected drug lord Sammy Uy stashed at a BPI bank branch in Mandaluyong City that has accumulated some P2.4 billion in funds.
Duterte initially agreed to sign a waiver but later resorted to coming up with excuses, cursing Trillanes, and totally ignoring the challenge posed by Trillanes.
For their part, former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban and customs broker Mark Taguba, both convicted felons for their alleged participation in the smuggling of shabu worth P11 billion concealed in magnetic lifters, both claimed they were just framed up for the crime and that the Davao Group, composed of Michael Yang, Pulong Duterte, his brother-in-law Mans Carpio and former Davao City councilor Small Abellera were behind said drug smuggling.
Taguba also exposed the so-called “Tara System” for certain BoC officials and employees for the facilitation with ease of container van shipments, suspicious or not, from various ports and facilities in the country, particularly in Manila.
The Quadcom report also recommended a review, amendment and revision to upgrade certain laws such as RA 7160 or the Local Government Code; RA 1405 or the Bank Secrecy Act; RA 3753 or the Civil Registry Law; RA 6426 or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act; RA 1130 or the Anti-Dummy Law; RA 11983 or the New Passport Law; RA 6982 or the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act; RA 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act; RA 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act; RA 9487 or the PAGCOR Charter and RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
The other laws the Quadcom recommended to be amended or revised include RA 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms Regulation Act; RA 10625 or Philippine Statistical Act of 2013;
RA 11055 or the Philippine Identification System Act; RA 11232 or the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines; RA 11934 or the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act; PD 538 as amended by PD 1492 or the PHIVIDEC Charter; Article 117 of the Revised Penal Code – Espionage.
The Quadcom also called for the repeal or revocation of Executive Order No 13 (s. 2017) Strengthening the Fight Against Illegal Gambling and possible enactment of HB 82 or the Anti-Bank Foreign Currency Smuggling Act.
On the issue of illegal drugs, Barbers recommended the amendment to RA 9165 – An Act Prohibiting Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines; RA 9165 seeking full public disclosure of all seized illegal drugs; PD 1464 or the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines; among others.
On the issue of EJK, Quadcom recommended amending Section 43 of RA 6795 or People’s Law Enforcement Board under the DILG, in seeking automatic referral to PLEBS in deaths Police Operations; Creation of an Inter-Agency Investigative Body to tackle EJKs; and establishing the Internal Affairs of the PNP as an independent and autonomous agency, separate from the PNP hierarchy.
