Duterte appears before Senate as chamber probes into anti-drug war

FPRRD ARRIVES AT THE SENATE: Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte arrives at the Senate building in Pasay City Monday, October 28, 2024 to attend the Blue Ribbon Subcommittee motu proprio investigation, in aid of legislation, on the Philippine war against illegal drugs. Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is leading the investigation. (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — For the first time on Monday, former President Rodrigo Duterte appeared in a congressional inquiry into his administration’s bloody drug war dubbed as Oplan Tokhang.

Duterte was among the resource persons invited to the motu proprio investigation of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee chaired by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel II.

This is not the first time that a former chief executive faced a Senate probe.

In 2017, ex-President Benigno Aquino III appeared before the chamber’s investigation on the anti-dengue immunization program, which commenced during his term.

There is already an ongoing investigation in the House of Representatives on the previous administration’s brutal anti-drug campaign but Duterte has yet to personally appear before it to address the allegations leveled against him.

Even before he became president, Duterte already vowed numerous times, in his cuss-filled promises during his presidential campaign, to “butcher criminals.”

“If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because as the mayor, I’d kill you,” Duterte said then.

The anti-drug campaign itself made the former president a central figure in the International Court’s investigation on crimes against humanity complaints filed by families of drug war victims.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency listed 6,252 dead in anti-drug police operations from July 1, 2016 to May 31, 2022.

But a 2017 year end report attributed to the Office of the President listed more than 20,000 killed in the first 17 months alone of the Duterte administration.

The probe today in Senate is being conducted in light of the House of Representatives’ continuing investigation into Duterte’s bloody anti-drug war.

Earlier, Pimentel told reporters in a text message that a parallel investigation in the Senate regarding the previous administration’s brutal drug war would grant the government an opportunity to test the reliability of witnesses that appeared before the lower chamber.

He said a Senate probe parallel to the House Quad Committee is not mandatory, but he insinuated that it would be beneficial.

“Yes, that is optional, but looks like a good idea to me because it will give us the opportunity to ask cross-examination questions to test the credibility of the witnesses,” said Pimentel.

At the lower chamber, bombshell revelations were made.

Among these include retired police colonel Royina Garma’s confession that the past administration adopted a so-called “Davao template” in terms of the war against illegal drugs, where officers involved in the killing of drug suspects were rewarded.

Senate President Chiz Escudero, for his part, previously dismissed fears that the upper chamber’s investigation would be biased.

He said he fully trusts that Pimentel would handle the probe well.

Escudero also dispelled speculations that the Senate investigation was aimed at allowing Duterte’s allies — Sen. Bong Go and Sen. Bato dela Rosa —  to retaliate against witnesses in the House quad committee hearings.