House of Representatives Secretary General Reginald Velasco (Photo from econgress.gov.ph)
MANILA, Philippines — The quad committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday, 10 a.m.—which was initially cancelled—will now push through, House of Representatives Secretary General Reginald Velasco said.
In a message to reporters early Wednesday morning, Velasco confirmed that quad committee lead presiding officer and Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers gave the go signal to continue with the eleventh hearing.
The hearing will still be held at the People’s Center, where the quad committee and House committee on good government and public accountability meetings have been conducted.
READ: Quad comm reschedules drug war probe to verify testimonies
“Confirmed na daw ni Chair Ace Barbers yung QuadCom hearing tom at 10am, People’s Center. Thanks,” Velasco said.
It is unclear what prompted the quad committee leadership to push through with the hearing, but on Tuesday, Barbers explained that they decided to reschedule the November 13 discussions to November 21, due to the high volume of testimonies that they need to verify first.
READ: Ex-president Duterte didn’t confirm quad comm probe attendance – Barbers
Supporters of former president Rodrigo Duterte called out the quad committee on social media, claiming that the ex-leader was prepared to face the four panels. Barbers however said that Duterte never confirmed that he was attending before the quad committee leadership decided to reschedule the hearing.
Furthermore, Barbers also said they would have pushed through with the hearing if Duterte confirmed his attendance. However, Duterte’s supporters took the rescheduling as a sign that the quad committee was afraid of facing the former president.
On Tuesday also, former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said he and Duterte will troop to the Batasang Pambansa complex on Wednesday to confront the quad committee members, as the hearing was supposedly cancelled without prior notice.
There have been posts from vloggers supportive of the past administration claiming that Duterte had been in Manila since Sunday, to attend the quad committee hearing.
However, Barbers and quad committee co-chair and Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez clarified that previously, Duterte said through his lawyer Martin Delgra III that he does not want to attend the hearing as he was doubting the panels’ integrity.
Duterte’s name has been mentioned several times in the quad committee hearings, due to the drug war he implemented while he was president. Revelations from former police officials, like retired colonel Royina Garma’s claims about the existence of a rewards system in the drug war, have bolstered lawmakers’ belief that there were irregularities in anti-drug operations.
According to Garma, Duterte called her in 2016 about the creation of a task force which will implement the so-called Davao template in a nationwide scale. The Davao template, Garma said, involved providing cash grants worth P20,000 to P1 million to cops who kill drug suspects.
Garma also claimed that the existence of the Davao Death Squad—a team that former president Duterte supposedly crafted while he was Davao City mayor—was common knowledge among police officers in the area.
At a Senate hearing last October 28, Duterte said he created a seven-man hit squad made up of gangsters when he was Davao City mayor, but eventually retracted it when senators asked for a clarification.