HAUNTING FIGURES Former President Rodrigo Duterte listens to the proceedings at the House quad committee hearing on Wednesday as a screen flashes the numbers of those killed in police operations and alleged vigilante-style attacks linked to his campaign against illegal drugs. —Niño Jesus Orbeta
MANILA, Philippines — Former President Rodrigo Duterte finally appeared before the House quad committee on Wednesday, where he not only reiterated that he would assume full responsibility for all the killings tied to his brutal war on drugs but also dared the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “come here and start the investigation tomorrow.”
In an exchange with Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas, the 79-year-old Duterte said he “assume[s] full responsibility for whatever happened in the actions taken by the law enforcement agencies of this country, to stop the drugs or the serious problem of the drugs affecting our people.”
He dared the ICC, whose prosecutorial arm is currently investigating him for alleged crimes against humanity, to “hurry up and to come here and start the investigation tomorrow,” a line he would repeat throughout the hearing.
READ: Palace: Duterte free to surrender to ICC if he wishes
“This issue has been left hanging for so many years. It’s been so long ma’am, I might die soon, and they might never get to investigate me,” he said. “Let them come here, and if I am found guilty, I will rot in prison.”
Addressing questions later from Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel, Duterte said he was not scared of the ICC “even a bit.’’
“They can come here anytime. I suppose that you would want to make it easy to visit and start the investigation. I would welcome that. I don’t have anything to hide.”
ICC stance
His remarks appeared to be an about-face from his initial position while in power that the ICC had no jurisdiction over the Philippines, a stance he solidified by pulling the country out of the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the tribunal, in March 2019.
The ICC last year cleared the way for an investigation into the thousands of deaths and other suspected rights abuses in the Duterte crackdown after its Appeals Chamber voted 3-2 to rule that its prosecutors still had jurisdiction over the alleged crimes because they occurred when the Philippines was still an ICC member.
According to police data, more than 6,200 people died in antidrug operations under Duterte’s presidency, during which police typically said they were forced to kill suspects in self-defense.
Human rights groups believe the real toll to be far greater, with thousands more users and small-time peddlers killed in mysterious circumstances by unidentified gunmen.
Sara shows up
The former President arrived at the Batasang Pambansa early Wednesday after the four-committee body led by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers called his dare to proceed with Wednesday’s hearing, which was supposed to have been reset to Nov. 21.
It was Duterte’s first appearance at the House since his presidency ended in mid-2022.
The chamber, once filled with lawmakers who had supported his war on drugs, is now dominated by allies of President Marcos, starting with his cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Unlike his appearance last month in the Senate for similar inquiry into the drug war, Duterte was prevented by the House panelists from going off-topic or spewing cuss words, with Barbers often giving reminders about procedure and decorum.
Seated beside his archcritic, former Sen. Leila de Lima, Duterte was accompanied by three lawyers who once served in his administration: former Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board Chair Martin Delgra, former Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, and former Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
At around 4:30 p.m., his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, arrived without prior notice at the Batasang Pambansa after weeks of snubbing a separate House inquiry into her use of millions of pesos in confidential funds.
Admissions
For the most part, the elder Duterte repeated what he told the Senate, including an admission that he himself had killed six or seven “criminals” when he was Davao City mayor.
Hearing this, 1-Rider Rep. Rodge Gutierrez told the panel that he found this admission disturbing, more so because no cases had been filed against the former President.
Gutierrez said the Department of Justice should open an investigation into these deaths, to which Duterte replied: “I would welcome that. I’m just waiting.”
Duterte also recalled that he often patrolled the streets of Davao on his motorbike in hopes of catching criminals and killing them himself.
During an interpellation by Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, Duterte also admitted that he planted evidence when he was Davao City prosecutor, saying it was “part of the strategy as a mayor and as the leader of a law enforcement agency in the city.”
However, he also admitted being given to hyperbole, citing as an example a 2016 statement where he claimed to have thrown an alleged kidnapper from an airborne helicopter.
This prompted Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante to confront Duterte about his cavalier tone when talking about killing: “Do you even care about human rights?”
“I’m not an employee of the Commission on Human Rights,” Duterte scoffed back. “I don’t care about human rights.”
“Then can I say that you were wrong being President and not caring about human rights?” Abante asked.
“I will not debate you on that,” Duterte replied.
Michael Yang
Duterte denied accusations that his former economic adviser, Chinese businessman Michael Yang, was himself a drug lord.
He said he “would not have staked my name on him if I knew he was a drug lord… [I]f he was, I would have killed him myself. But I think this allegation [persisted] because he is Chinese.”
Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro later made Duterte agree that his statement about taking full responsibility for the killings was tantamount to a confession of guilt.
“In a sense, yes, because I couldn’t do anything,” he said. “Because I ordered the campaign against the drug syndicates, and whatever they do, whether illegal or not, I was the one who ordered it. In that sense, I take responsibility for their actions.”
But when confronted about specific killings—like the cases of former Gen. Wesley Barayuga; the three Chinese drug lords killed in the Davao penal farm in 2016; former Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., former Tanauan Mayor Antonio Halili, and former Los Baños Mayor Caesar Perez—Duterte denied having any hand in them.
Ready with recommendation
Gutierrez later asked Duterte to clarify what exactly he was taking responsibility for if he would not acknowledge that these deaths were an offshoot of his “kill, kill, kill” rhetoric.
“Someone has to take the blame, and that person is me,” he said.
Luistro later manifested that based on Duterte’s own admissions, the quad committee was ready to make a recommendation to file charges against the former President in court.
The charges would be for violation of Republic Act (RA) No. 9851, or the Act Defining and Penalizing Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, and murder, Luistro said.
In response, Duterte, a former public prosecutor, reminded the lawmakers that even if he had made such statements in the House hearing, someone must still “file the case in court, where I will again repeat the same admissions.”