House panel cites Roque for contempt, invites Duterte anew

Harry Roque —File photo from the Facebook page of the House of Representatives

MANILA, Philippines — Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Thursday was cited for contempt and ordered detained for 24 hours for supposedly lying to the quad committee of the House of Representatives about why he failed to attend the first hearing in Pampanga last week.

The contempt order was issued near the end of the nearly nine-hour-long proceedings held by the four panels, which earlier in the day invited Roque’s former boss, former President Rodrigo Duterte, to the next hearing after two resource persons tagged him in the killing of three Chinese drug lords at a Davao prison in 2016. No-show on Aug. 16.

READ: Harry Roque cited for contempt after lying about absence in House probe

The super committee composed of the House panels on dangerous drugs, public order and safety, public accounts, and human rights, is looking into major criminal activities that happened during Duterte’s presidency.

Roque was dragged into the investigation after he was linked to officials of the raided Lucky South 99 Philippine offshore gaming operations in Porac, Pampanga, as well as his involvement in a raided house in Benguet province, where authorities caught two foreign nationals.

Kabayan Rep. Ron Salo moved that Roque be cited for contempt after he missed the first committee hearing on Aug. 16 supposedly due to a court hearing scheduled on the same day in Manila.

But Salo showed the panels a certification from the court that Roque was not there on the said date, but a day earlier.

In response, Roque said he thought the House hearing was on Aug. 15 and apologized.

“There being no showing that there was an actual lying, but an honest mistake, and there was no actual disrespect, [I] believe that any form of punishment by way of deprivation of liberty is unwarranted,” he told the quad comm members.

Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza initially tried to dissuade the other lawmakers from penalizing Roque but gave way when quad comm cochair and Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers put the motion to a vote.

‘In spirit of fairness’

Earlier in the hearing, House Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales said they were extending another invitation to Duterte “in the spirit of fairness … in light of these very serious and sensitive developments.”

He was referring to the allegations of Leopoldo Tan and Fernando Magdadaro, two convicts serving life sentences, who told the panel members they murdered Chinese nationals Chu Kin Tung, Li Lang Yang, and Wong Meng Pin, in exchange for P1 million “per head” and a shorter jail term.

At that time, all five were inmates at the maximum security compound of the Davao Penal and Prison Farm in Davao del Norte although the Chinese nationals were supposedly being held in a “foreign ward.”

Their deaths were among the first wave of extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s first year as President, in which he vowed to make the country drug-free within three to six months. At the time, the three Chinese inmates accused of being big-time drug lords were serving drug-related sentences — which “greatly infuriated Duterte,” Tan told the panel.

The order, according to Magdadaro, came from Police Executive Master Sergeant Arturo Narsolis, a prison official who was also his high school classmate, who claimed the order had been approved by someone “at the top.” Magdadaro said he believed Narsolis was referring to Duterte.

Supposedly, Narsolis told Tan to “find an accomplice,” adding that they would stage something as an excuse to throw them all in solitary confinement.

‘This evil’ must stop

On Aug. 11, 2016, they found their alibi: “shabu” (crystal meth) was found in their pockets so they were thrown into confinement. Two days later, the three Chinese were also brought to the same cell, where Magdadaro and Tan stabbed them repeatedly with bladed weapons given to them by the “mayores,” a certain Leo Pingkian.

Shortly after killing the three, Tan said they overheard the prison’s officer in charge, Geraldo Padilla, talking to someone who sounded like Duterte on his cell phone. “I heard the person talking to him: ‘Congratulations, Supt. Padilla. Job well done. Pero grabe ‘yung ginawa. Ginawang dinuguan (The manner of death is unbelievable; they were basically blood stew).”

Several lawmakers, including quad comm cochairs Barbers, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Johnny Pimentel, repeatedly pressed Tan if “he was absolutely sure … that it was Duterte” and that he was “not making this testimony under duress.”

“The thing I don’t understand is, what do you get out of this for telling this story?” Fernandez asked. “You only have to wait three more years in your life sentence … by telling this, you’re basically putting yourself and your family in danger.”

“I just want all this evil to stop,” Tan replied.

This is the first time that the House looked at extrajudicial killings inside prisons. Rights groups have long warned — and in fact argued before the International Criminal Court—that suspicious deaths of “high-value individuals” inside detention cells or jails showed that vigilantism happened within security facilities and could not have taken place without the direct knowledge of law enforcement. This prompted the committee to move to get the names of all alleged drug lords who suddenly died in prison.

“This happened all over the country and that is not easy to do,” Pimentel said. “It is extremely difficult to target and kill Chinese nationals who are detained in different facilities without the direct approval of the administration … I believe there was a great conspiracy emanating from the leader itself all the way down to the small officials.” Earlier invitation

This was not the first time that Duterte was invited by the House.

In June, Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante — then investigating extrajudicial killings in the former President’s drug war as a separate inquiry — also moved to invite him to face drug war victims.

Also invited at the time were former national police chief turned Sen. Ronald dela Rosa and former Sen. Leila de Lima.

Last week, the quad committee’s first surprise witness, former customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban, named former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, and Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, Mans Carpio, as the real owners of the controversial P11-billion shabu shipment that slipped through the Bureau of Customs in 2018.