Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, Jr. urged former President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday to also appear at the Quad Committee hearing and shed light on complaints related to his war on drugs policy and subsequent allegations of extrajudicial killings (EJKs).
Abante, chair of the House Committee on Human Rights, issued this statement after Duterte testified at the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee hearing on Monday. The Quad Comm has a standing invitation for the former president to attend its own legislative inquiry.
“We expect the former president to show up in our next hearing. We have many questions to ask him about his war on drugs and the deaths that resulted from it. We believe his answers will give us a more complete picture of the EJKs,” Abante said in a press conference.
Duterte was formally invited to appear at the October 22 hearing of the Quad Comm. But his lawyer, Martin Delgra III, informed the joint panel that the former president was not feeling well that day and needed some rest.
Abante noted that Duterte appeared to be in good physical condition when he appeared at the Senate inquiry. “If he was physically well to attend the Senate inquiry on Monday, he should have no excuse to skip our next hearing,” added the Manila lawmaker.
While he thanked the senators for inviting him to share his side of story, Duterte said he has no plans to make repeated appearances in the legislative inquiry. He said he felt too old to travel back and forth from Davao City to Manila and noted the costly air fares.
“I am from the province. You cannot summon me repeatedly. If you do that, I will snub you. I have no money. I am not that rich to keep traveling by plane. That’s expensive… I am only living off my retirement pay,” Duterte told the senators mostly in Filipino.
