Explain your ‘jokes,’ House tells Duterte

Quad committee co-chairs Robert Ace Barbers and Dan Fernandez —Photo from the House of Representatives

MANILA, Philippines — The leaders of the House of Representatives’ quad committee dared former President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies to prove that his public statements about killing drug personalities were really “jokes” or “hyperbole” if he wants the public to believe he had no responsibility over the extrajudicial killings that happened under his watch.

The call by the panel’s co-chairs Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers and Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez was made after its Thursday hearing, during which it heard testimonies from two convicted hitmen who claimed Duterte had issued kill orders against three Chinese drug lords in 2016.

READ: Duterte ordered killing of 3 Chinese men in 2016, hitman claims

The inmates, Leopoldo Tan Jr. and Fernando Magdadaro, testified they killed Chinese nationals Chu Kin Tung, Li Lang Yang and Wong Meng Pin, in exchange for P1 million “per head” and their freedom.

“This is the right moment for the former administration, especially to its former officials and the former president, to justify that they were correct in saying that the pronouncements of the former President were all jokes or strong words but are not real,” said Fernandez, chair of the House committee on public order and safety, which is part of the four-member panel.

Fernandez recalled: “We still remember the time when the former President was always saying, ‘Papatayin kita. Maihulog kita sa helicopter (I’ll kill you. Will throw you out [to your death] from a helicopter)’—things like that.”

Just kidding

Even now, Duterte’s officials and allies would often defend him by claiming he was joking or exaggerating.

But rights groups that accused him of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court argued it is precisely this rhetoric that made him the most culpable in the thousands of deaths during the drug war.

Deadly, not funny

Barbers said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency confirmed other inmates are willing to testify about drug war-related killings during the Duterte administration.

“We evaluated the situation and sought legal experts for comments, and we saw that their testimony has value because their testimonies are very serious,” he added.

Based on the Human Rights Watch, Duterte’s “war on drugs” resulted in the deaths of more than 12,000 Filipinos, with an estimated “2,555 of the killings attributed to the Philippine National Police.”

The PNP itself has officially acknowledged more than 6,000 killings in police antidrug operations.