Duterte, dela Rosa invited to House hearings on POGOs, drug war deaths

The House of Representatives has established a comprehensive committee, comprising four panels, to investigate the potential connections between Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), the illegal drug trade, extrajudicial killings, and other related crimes. This move comes as part of House Resolution 1880, which seeks to streamline the inquiry process by combining the efforts of the committees on dangerous drugs, public order and safety, human rights, and public accounts.

The formation of this mega-panel aims to address concerns that POGOs may be involved in illegal activities, including allegations that government officials were bribed with “drug money” to facilitate the proliferation of POGOs.

Rep. Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte, chair of the House dangerous drugs panel, underscored the intertwined nature of these issues. “There seems to be a criminal organization operating within the country where drugs or drug money is being used to corrupt certain government officials to secure fake and spurious documents to misrepresent themselves as Filipinos, to be able to acquire properties or lands in the country… which are used to build front and legitimate businesses, such as POGOs,” Barbers was quoted as saying in a report published by The Philippine Star.

Aside from Barbers’ committee, the three other panels include the committee on public order and safety which is chaired by Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez; the committee on public accounts, which is chaired by Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Paduano; and the committee on human rights led by Abante Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante.

The joint investigation will kick off on August 15, with the objective of proposing “remedial legislation” based on their findings. Rep. Dan Fernandez emphasized the efficiency gained by consolidating the inquiries. “Basically, we really saw that all the issues are interconnected. The primary objective of what we are doing is to fast-track the process so that we can see the laws we need to create, and at the same time, the recommendations of the four committees,” Fernandez explained.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez supports the creation of this mega-panel, which aims to expedite the investigation process and identify the real problems facing the country.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, and former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque are among those expected to be invited to shed light on these issues. Rep. Abante, chair of the House human rights committee, highlighted the necessity of Duterte’s testimony, given the central role of his administration’s war on drugs.

The lawmaker wants to investigate the discrepancy in the number of Filipinos who died during the term of Duterte. Abante pointed out that during the human rights committee’s probe into the extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s war on drugs, Philippine National Police recorded only 7,000 deaths but this was far below the estimate of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), which recorded over 20,000 deaths.

“I believe that this inquiry stems from a national security concern. We [previously] invited the former President to come sapagkat siya lang ang makakasagot ng mga tanong na ito: Bakit sinasabi ng NUPL na more than 20,000 ang napatay, 16,000 ang napatay ng the vigilante forces?” Abante remarked.

Data from the Philippine National Police submitted to Abante’s committee showed that while only 21 drug lords were killed, the number of drug pushers and users killed reached 7,000 and 440, respectively. There are also reports from police officers indicating a possible quota and reward system for these killings. “There are exchange of money here. Ibig sabihin ang nakita namin na there might be a quota system in the Philippine National Police, number one. Although, dine-deny ito ng iba, pero ibang mga pulis nasabi nila ito,” Abante noted. “Pangalawa, there’s a reward system. Ibig sabihin sa reward system na ‘yan, kapag nakapatay ka ng drug pusher, may reward ka. Nalaman namin na this is a testimony of one of the police that we have officer from P20K to P60K binabayad diyan.”

Abante emphasized the need for Duterte to address these issues to ensure national security. “Saan nanggagaling ang pera na ibinibigay sa mga nakakapatay na mga pulis? Iyon ang tanong namin dito. Kaya nagkasundo-sundo na kami para maimbitahan ang dating Pangulo, para sagutin niya ang lahat ng mga bagay na ito, because this concerns our national security at siya lamang ang makakasagot nito,” he added.

Rep. Romeo Acop of Antipolo, a former police officer, clarified that the inquiry is not a personal attack on President Duterte or his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte. “We’re here to do our job. And our job is to find out whether the laws that we have enacted in Congress are properly implemented by the executive [department],” Acop stated. “We are not in the business of political squabble,” he added.