Medialdea laughs off summons on Duterte

FILE PHOTO: Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. TOTO LOZANO/PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO

Former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea simply laughed off a suggestion that former President Rodrigo Duterte be summoned to the House of Representatives’ probe of his deadly war on drugs.

Medialdea, who was executive secretary during Duterte’s entire term, claimed to the House committee on human rights that he had no knowledge of the former leader’s antidrugs campaign that claimed more than 6,000 lives officially acknowledged to have been lost in police operations.

Although only 54 of these cases were found to have been questionable, Medialdea—one of the country’s top lawyers upon his appointment as executive secretary—did not explain why only three deaths were successfully prosecuted in the Duterte administration’s six years in office.

READ: Duterte, Dela Rosa to be informed about next House hearing on EJKs in drug war 

In a press conference on Friday, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel said that if the Duterte administration touts the “neutralization” of thousands of drug suspects as an accomplishment, then he and his officials should have no problem answering to the committee.

“Regardless of the existing references or memos or orders (about the implementation of the drug war) the real reference used by the Philippine National Police and other government agencies to implement ‘Oplan Tokhang’ was no less than [Duterte’s] own pronouncements that drugs must be eradicated in the country within six months,” Manuel said, referring to the knock-and-plead strategy used to identify drug suspects.

Echoed Castro: “All the numbers about the drug war—whether it was 6,000 or over 20,000—came from the government agencies themselves and cannot be denied. That’s why I’m puzzled as to why [Salvador] Medialdea claims he had no knowledge of these things.”

Manuel also took offense at Medialdea laughing off the prospect of Duterte being invited as a resource person to the hearings, which began last month as a belated legislative effort to pursue accountability for the drug war victims.

“Why is that funny?” he asked. “If they’re so proud of their own numbers that they killed 20,000 civilians in just two years, then why is it suddenly ludicrous for them to explain that?”