House quad committee to Bato: Don’t hide behind media
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante on Tuesday again challenged Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to face the House quad committee probe into the drug war instead of “hiding behind the media” to evade questions about his liability.
In his opening statement during the quad committee’s first hearing for the year, Abante criticized Dela Rosa for supposedly evading scrutiny into the extent of his involvement in the drug war during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration when he was national police chief.
Last year, the megapanel composed of the committees on human rights, public accounts, public order and safety, and dangerous drugs recommended that authorities file charges of crimes against humanity under Republic Act No. 9851 versus Duterte, Dela Rosa and Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go.
The quad committee alleges the three were the principal architects of the brutal war on drugs, which according to government data has killed around 7,000 people though the Human Rights Watch reported it “has led to the deaths of more than 12,000 Filipinos.”
“We have been asking him to face the panel so he himself can clarify things but what is he doing? He goes to the media, where he yaps,” Abante said.
The panel is looking into the links among the illegal drug trade, extrajudicial killings, and offshore gaming money.
Before the quad committee suspended its hearing last year, senior vice chair and Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop said the inquiry pointed to Duterte as the “center of a grand criminal enterprise” that used the brutal drug war to instead enable and profit from the very same scourge he said he wanted to eliminate.
Also on Tuesday, Acop moved to cite in contempt, for the second time, Police Col. Hector Grijaldo for refusing to answer the lawmakers’ questions about his testimony in an October 2024 Senate hearing, in which he accused two lawmakers of coercing him to testify about the war on drugs.
The former Mandaluyong police chief was also ordered detained in Station 6 of the Quezon City Police District.
Grijaldo was already serving a contempt citation issued against him in December for missing four consecutive hearings.
The quad committee, however, lifted its contempt order against former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Wilkins Villanueva, who was initially ordered detained during the committee’s last hearing for 2024.
