Not just ex-President Duterte: House panel flags VP Sara, too

Former President Rodrigo Duterte (left) and Vice President Sara Duterte —Official Facebook pages of Rody Duterte and Inday Sara Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — Even Vice President Sara Duterte did not escape the sweeping report of the House quad committee calling for her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, to be held liable for crimes against humanity for his vicious drug war.

Among the recommendations in the panel’s 51-page report is for the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to further investigate the alleged joint bank accounts of the former President and his daughter “as alleged by former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, containing funds coming from an alleged drug lord, Sammy Uy.”

This could compound Duterte’s political woes as she is already facing three impeachment complaints and a separate inquiry by the House committee on good government for her alleged misuse of confidential funds as Vice President and as former education secretary.

READ: Act on impeach raps vs Sara, House urged

Drug money

The quad committee cited Trillanes’ testimony about bank accounts shared by the Dutertes, into which millions of pesos were transferred regularly by Uy, one of Duterte’s election campaign contributors.

From 2011 to 2013 alone, Trillanes claimed that the Dutertes received more than P133 million: P14.88 million was transferred to Vice President Sara Duterte’s account, P15.65 million to the former President, P41.2 million to Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, and P42.6 million to Cielito “Honeylet” Avanceña.

Some of the deposits were based on managers’ checks that were traced to Uy, who was later identified by confessed hitman Arturo Lascañas as a drug lord in his affidavit before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“That’s why we concluded that this war on drugs is fake to protect his syndicate, which includes (former presidential economic adviser) Michael Yang, Sammy Uy, and Charlie Tan,” the former senator said during one of the quad committee’s hearings.

Duterte himself denied the accusations and even said he was willing to execute a bank waiver after being dared again by Trillanes.

He later backtracked and said he would only do so if Trillanes hung himself.

Testifying before the House panel, Duterte also said that he would take “full legal, moral responsibility” for his administration’s bloody war on drugs.

Wider probe

The recommendations are all contained in the progress report submitted by the megapanel chaired by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers during Congress’ last working day, Dec. 18.

Among others, the report said Duterte, along with his allies Senators Christopher “Bong” Go and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, should be held accountable for crimes against humanity for leading the brutal campaign that claimed thousands of lives over his six-year term.

The same report, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, also called for further investigation into the Vice President’s brother, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, for his alleged involvement in a so-called Davao Mafia involved in the drug trade, as alleged by former Customs insiders Jimmy Guban and Mark Taguba.

When Barbers read his sponsorship speech, however, he only mentioned that the panel recommended further investigation into, among others, Uy for his alleged involvement in the drug trade.

He did not name Sara Duterte or the bank accounts, even though the call for AMLC to further investigate was part of the roster of recommendations to address “extrajudicial killings.”

Based on official reports, the war on drugs left at least 6,000 people dead.

However, data from human rights watchdog Karapatan showed that at least 30,000 drug suspects were summarily killed, 422 political activists were summarily executed, and 544 cases of frustrated extrajudicial killings.