Duterte, dela Rosa welcome to attend House probe on anti-drug war

FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte and former National Police chief, now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, are welcome to attend the House of Representatives inquiry into the Duterte administration’s controversial anti-drug war, the chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights said.

This was announced by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., who however said that Duterte and dela Rosa, the key players in the anti-drugs war that saw the killing of thousands of suspected drug pushers and users, will not be subpoenaed.

Abante made the announcement in response to a proposal by Rep. Raoul Manuel, the nominee to the House of the Kabataan party-list group, to invite the former president and dela Rosa to the investigation.

“What I can promise…is that we will be informing Senator dela Rosa again at the next hearing, and if he would like to attend, we will let him know that he is welcome,” Abante said.

“We will also inform the former president about the hearing. It will then be up to him whether he wants to attend or not. But I would like to show respect to the former president. Although he might not be exempt from this investigation, I think we should respect to the former president for being a [former high-ranking] public official. So we’re going to inform the former president on this,” he said.

In a span of just 17 months, 20,322 drug suspects were allegedly killed during Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, as revealed to the House Committee on Human Rights.

During the committee hearing, human-rights lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno cited an “extended resolution” from the Supreme Court, which referenced data from Duterte’s own office. The court noted the 2017 year-end accomplishment report from the Office of the President in a case titled “Amora vs dela Rosa” (referring to former Philippine National Police chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa), filed in 2018.

Citing the SC resolution, Diokno said a total of 20,322 drug suspects were killed between July 1, 2016, and November 27, 2017. Of these, 3,967 were killed in police operations, while 16,355 were killed by “riding in tandem” and other unidentified assailants.

In his proposal to invite Duterte and dela Rosa, Manuel noted that there were specific questions about the anti-drug war that only the former president and his National Police chief could answer.

“According to the reference for Project Double Barrel, it lists documents and mentions the pronouncement of President Rodrigo Duterte to eliminate illegal drugs during the first six months of his term. If there were misunderstandings among the police on how to implement certain aspects of the command memorandum circular [CMC], the president’s pronouncement served as the reference,” Manuel explained.

He said Duterte was the “primary reference” in the CMC.

He pointed out that dela Rosa should also be asked to attend the probe.

Asked to comment on the SC resolution quoted by Diokno, Duterte’s Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said he would have to check on it.

However, he said, “There were various figures floated—6,000, 30,000, and now more than 20,000. We don’t know anymore which to believe.”