DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 October) — Former President Rodrigo Duterte has been formally invited to attend the joint public hearing of the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts of the House of Representatives (QuadComm) on Tuesday, Oct. 22, to address issues related to the bloody “war on drugs” during his administration.
In a letter dated Oct. 18, Surigao del Norte’s 2nd District representative Robert Ace S. Barbers, who chairs Committee on Dangerous Drugs, requested Duterte’s attendance at the inquiry, in aid of legislation, on October 22 at 9:30 a.m. at the People’s Center Building, House of Representatives in Quezon City.
Duterte was invited to provide “valuable insights and shed light on the issues under discussion particularly on extra-judicial killings” allegedly committed during administration.
Duterte was President from June 30, 2016 until June 30, 2022. Before that, he served as mayor of Davao City for 22 years, three years as 1st district congressional representative and another three as vice mayor.
Duterte filed on October 7 his certificate of candidacy for an 8th term as mayor.
The QuadComm sought the assistance of Brigadier General Nicolas D. Torre III, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), for the CIDG-Davao to ensure that the invitation would reach Duterte or his representative in his residence at Doña Luisa Subdivision in Matina, Davao City.
In an interview with SMNI News on October 17, Duterte said he would appear in the House probe if invited and vowed to give QuadComm members the “answers they want” to hear.
Duterte also denied claims made by retired police officer Royina Garma, whom he appointed as general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in 2019, that police were tapped to replicate the “Davao Model” to implement a nationwide “war on drugs.”
According to Garma’s affidavit submitted to the QuadComm, the “Davao Model” involved three levels of payments or rewards: reward if the suspect is killed, funding of planned operations or COPLANS, and refund of operational expenses.
Garma said then President-elect Rodrigo Duterte called him to an early morning meeting in his house in May 2016 to seek her help in looking for someone in the police who could bring the “Davao Model” on a national scale.
She said Duterte was looking for a police officer or operative who was a member of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).
She said she informed the President that she did not know anyone who met the qualifications as she had never been assigned outside this city or served at the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police.
But she added that she remembered her upperclassman Edilberto Leonardo, an INC member and officer assigned to the CIDG in Manila.
Garma said Duterte summoned Leonardo at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao for a meeting and instructed him to “organize a task force” similar to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also initiated an investigation into extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s administration. Duterte has repeatedly said he does not recognize the international court as it has no jurisdiction over the Philippines.
In 2019, the Philippines withdrew from the ICC after the international court launched a preliminary examination of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Government records say some 6,000 were killed in anti-drug operations from June 2016 until May 31, 2022, but human rights groups estimate that the death toll may be as high as 30,000.
Then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced that the ICC will conduct a preliminary examination of these deaths in February 2018. The pre-trial investigation began five years later on Sept. 15, 2021—covering crimes allegedly committed in the country between Nov. 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019, when the Philippines was a state party to the Rome Statute.
This expands the scope of the investigation beyond the Duterte presidency’s “war on drugs” to also include killings during Duterte’s time as Davao City mayor.
On 17 March 2018, then-President Duterte formally notified the UN Secretary-General that the Philippines was withdrawing from the Rome Statute. The withdrawal became effective on 16 March 2019, a year after its receipt by the UN Secretary General. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
