Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte (Photo from RTV Malacañang)
Both Senators Richard Gordon and Tito Sotto III believe that there’s not enough evidence to prove that Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte has direct involvement in the shipment of P6.4 billion worth of drugs from China into the country.
“I have not found any evidence to believe that,” Gordon said in an ambush interview after the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing.
The committee, which Gordon chairs, resumed on Tuesday the inquiry on the shipment of 605 kilograms of shabu that went past the inspection of the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Sotto, meanwhile, said there’s no sufficient basis for the committee to summon the presidential son for the next hearing.
“No basis at all. The chairman himself knows it’s purely hearsay. What if somebody comes here and says that (former President Benigno Aquino III) is involved in the delivery of whatever, patatawag mo kagad si Noynoy? Hindi pwede yun. Lalo na hindi sya yung direct, may nagsabi lang daw,” he said.
Earlier in the hearing, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV showed to the panel photos of businessman Kenneth Dong, the middleman in the shabu shipment, with Paolo and his brother Sebastian “Baste” Duterte.
But Dong said he’s just an “acquaintance” of the vice mayor.
Broker Mark Taguba II also admitted that he had no personal knowledge that Paolo was indeed behind the “Davao Group” in the Customs.