Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop —Photo from his Facebook page
MANILA, Philippines — The drug war probe summary given by Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop — that the past administration’s anti-drug campaign was deceptive — is a sentiment shared by the entire quad committee, Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said.
In an online briefing on Friday, Barbers was asked if he agreed with Acop’s sentiments about former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration tricking the public into waging a drug war when it had supposedly protected members of drug syndicates.
“Well, that’s the general sentiment of the quad [committee] — because Michael Yang may be one of the biggest deceivers [budol] who posed as a legitimate businessman,” Barbers said in a mix of English and Filipino, referring to Duterte’s former economic adviser.
“But behind all of his businesses, he used our officials so that he could ship tons of illegal drugs into our country in the guise of being a legit investor. So that, for me, is really how we were duped,” he added.
‘Grand criminal enterprise’
Acop’s observation was part of his task to comprehensively review the 13 quad committee hearings. This partial report will be submitted to the House of Representatives plenary on Tuesday, December 17.
At the tail end of the quad committee hearing on Thursday, Acop said the four panels had uncovered tracks to a “grand criminal enterprise” with Duterte in the middle of it — as the former president and his officials figured in discussions even if his administration strongly advocated against crime and illegal drugs.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the quad committee has started to uncover a grand criminal enterprise, and it would seem that at the center of it is the former president. It’s painful because we have been duped),” Acop said.
The Antipolo-based lawmaker also noted that despite the drug war, individuals linked to the illegal drug trade who were deemed close to Duterte — like Yang — were not investigated thoroughly.
Acop said that instead of looking into Acierto’s report implicating Yang, Duterte chose to turn a blind eye to it and threatened Acierto.
READ: Acop: Quad comm uncovers Duterte’s link to ‘grand criminal enterprise’
Studying filing of cases
As to whether the quad committee would recommend filing cases against Duterte and his allies, Barbers said that was something the members would study.
“We are still studying that because following the admissions of our former president at the committee hearing, as we always say, basically, our recommendation will be based on what we see, hear, and the evidence, testimony, and documents that we received during the hearings,” Barbers said.
“We are not a court. We issue a recommendation — maybe one, to conduct a deeper investigation by the appropriate agency. Which agency? It may be the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation], the PNP [Philippine National Police]. Or maybe our recommendation is to file cases. Then if these are administrative cases it will be with the agency involved or the Office of the Ombudsman, and the DOJ [Department of Justice] for criminal cases.
The final list, Barbers said, may be released along with the partial committee report.
Duterte relatives, allies namedropped
In Acop’s summary and through several quad committee hearings, Duterte’s relatives and allies were name-dropped as possibly involved in the illicit drug trade, extrajudicial killings during the drug war, and the illegal activities inside Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hubs.
For example, Duterte’s son, now Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte, was accused by former Bureau of Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban and ex-Customs broker Mark Taguba of being involved in smuggling, including the entry of crystal meth, or shabu, concealed in magnetic lifters in August 2018.
READ: ‘Don’t name Paolo Duterte, Mans Carpio, Yang in 2018 shabu import mess’
On Thursday, Taguba said that Rep. Duterte heads the Davao group, which is responsible for smuggling operations in the Bureau of Customs.
INQUIRER.net has contacted Rep. Duterte’s office for his reaction on the issue, but his staffer said that the lawmaker would not issue a statement on Taguba’s claims since they did not know each other.
Previously, Rep. Duterte also disputed accusations by Guban that he was involved in the magnetic lifter scheme. According to the lawmaker, he also does not know Guban, adding that he has never transacted with the former BOC official.
Yang’s name also floated during discussions of Pogos and illegal drugs. Duterte, however, told quad committee members in a previous hearing he would personally kill Yang if there would be evidence linking him to the drug trade.