Former President Rodrigo Duterte —Grig C. Montegrande
MANILA, Philippines — “Ano ba talaga, kuya?” (What’s it going to be, bro?)
House leaders expressed frustration at what they described as confusing signals from former President Rodrigo Duterte about when he would be attending the quad committee hearing on the drug war, or whether he really intended to do so.
At a press conference on Tuesday, two cochairs of the joint House panel said they hoped to disabuse the public of the false impression created by Duterte’s camp that the lawmakers were “backing out” of an anticipated showdown with him by moving the date of the next hearing.
READ: Quad comm offers to pay for ex-Pres. Duterte’s airfare so he can join probe
This was after the former President sent feelers to the House that he planned to attend the hearing on Wednesday, hours after the committee announced that it had been moved to Nov. 21.
“I think they did this on purpose. That’s their style, to make it appear that we’re the ones shrinking back from this invitation when we’ve actually been inviting him so many times already,” Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez said.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers reminded the public that the quad committee had sent multiple invitations to the former President to appear as a resource person at the inquiry.
This was long before Duterte promised, through his legal counsel, to attend after the Nov. 1 holiday, he added.
After that, “we received another letter saying he would not attend because the quad comm supposedly has no integrity and he has already prejudged (Manila Rep. Bienvenido) Abante and Cong. Fernandez,” Barbers said.
“We decided to cancel the Nov. 13 hearing yesterday (Monday), then he suddenly says he wants to go. Ano ba talaga, kuya?” Fernandez added, using a Filipino idiom expressing one’s exasperation at another, roughly translated as: “make up your mind, brother.”
Pro-Duterte bloggers
Barbers and Fernandez said the committee never received official confirmation of Duterte’s attendance, only learning about it from pro-Duterte bloggers.
The decision to reschedule the Nov. 13 hearing was prompted by the lack of preparation of some of the witnesses, according to Barbers.
In a text message to the Inquirer, Duterte’s lawyer, former Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Chair Martin Delgra, said the former President had already arrived in Manila when his camp got the notice that the hearing would be canceled.
But according to a timeline and screenshots of exchanged emails and Viber messages shown to reporters, the quad committee sent notices of cancellation to the resource persons at around 6:30 p.m. on Monday. A member of Duterte’s staff was shown on one Viber screenshot to have replied at 6:44 p.m., acknowledging the message.
The committee later sent two more notices of cancellation via email to Duterte at 9:23 p.m. and 10:35 p.m., respectively, which Delgra acknowledged at 7:14 a.m. the next day.
No need to explain
In a message to reporters, Duterte’s former chief legal counsel and spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, threatened to confront lawmakers at the Batasang Pambansa complex on Wednesday to demand an explanation about the abrupt cancellation of the hearing, just when the former President, 79, had arrived in Manila.
Reached for comment, Barbers told the Inquirer that he did not understand why “they were making such a big deal about the cancellation, making us out like we’re afraid of them—we’re not.”
He also stood firm that even if Duterte were to come, there was “no further need to explain why they had canceled the hearing.”
Instead, he challenged Duterte to attend the Mass for the victims of drug war killings to be held at the House also on Wednesday. “Maybe he’d like to join them… eat breakfast with them. But I don’t know if he would even do that or consider that,” Barbers said.
Like father, like daughter
At the press conference, the quad panel cochairs said the postponement could not be reversed, as the other resource persons and committee members had already been duly notified.
“We’re following rules here… There would be a hearing on Nov. 21 [and] Nov. 28. There’s even December still. There’s still a lot of elbow room to discuss and formalize his (Duterte’s) appearance before the committee,” Fernandez said, adding: “Let’s not rush things just for one person.”
The House leaders cited similarities between Duterte and his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, who had also refused to attend the House good government committee’s separate inquiry on alleged fund misuse in the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, which she headed until she left the Cabinet post in July.
The quad panel comprising the committees on dangerous drugs, public order, human rights, and public accounts was formed in August to investigate alleged criminal activities tied to the Duterte administration, particularly extrajudicial killings and illegal offshore gambling activities that proliferated under his watch.
Both Dutertes, who have denounced the “politically motivated” congressional inquiries, have yet to face their accusers at the House.
The older Duterte, however, appeared at the Senate blue ribbon committee’s parallel inquiry on the drug war in October, during which he confessed to having a death squad, among other purportedly incriminating statements.