Bato: Duterte to attend first Senate hearing

MANILA, Philippines — After begging off from the quad committee hearing yesterday at the House of Representatives on extrajudicial killings during his administration, former president Rodrigo Duterte has committed to attend the first Senate hearing on the same issue on Monday.

This was according to Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who said Duterte had told him of his readiness to attend the hearing next week.

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee will lead the
 investigation on EJKs.

“The former president told me that he is going to attend the Senate hearing regardless of who is presiding,” Dela Rosa told reporters in a Viber message.

“This is the first time he will attend a hearing related to what he did or did not do when he was president,” Senate President Francis Escudero said at a press conference.

“My hope is that there will be a clear, peaceful and comprehensive exchange of views and providing information that will not lead to any kind of fight, confrontation and hot temper,” Escudero said in Filipino.

Escudero noted that there will be no special treatment to be extended to Duterte. “It’s not that there is no special treatment, but I expect that the committee will give him full respect, not only as a Filipino, not just as a person, but because he was a former president of our country,” the Senate President said.

Senate Minority Aquilino Pimentel III, who is spearheading the Senate probe, said the other invited resource persons for the Oct. 28 hearing are retired police colonel Royina Garma, former National Police Commission head Edilberto Leonardo, former senator Leila de Lima, alleged drug personalities Kerwin Espinosa and families of victims of the war on drugs.

“He said he was willing to attend. So I said, (since he) willing to attend. I’ll invite him…but I’ll still start with Garma. It should be stated first what the issue is,” Pimentel said in a phone patch interview with Senate reporters.

Pimentel said they are still finalizing the list of resource persons to be invited for Monday’s hearing.

“The victim families are OK (to be present), and Garma is OK too. But either way, what I want to say first is, what happened in the Philippines’ declared war against illegal drugs?” Pimentel added.

Pimentel said Dela Rosa and Sen. Bong Go can use the hearing as an opportunity to ask questions to resource persons or air their side.

“They (dela Rosa and Go) will be given time. All senators, we will give time for our hearing to be orderly. Limited time, they could use that time to ask. They could also use that to read their statement,” Pimentel added.

Pimentel said he expects the hearing on Monday to last six to seven hours, and there is really time for former president Duterte to explain in case his name is mentioned.

De Lima said she was wishing Duterte gets well soon so he would be able to face the investigation of the House quad comm.

“I hope, he gets well na so he would have the health to face the music. So to former president Duterte, I hope you get well soon so you will have the strength to face everything,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the quad comm hearing yesterday.

Crime vs humanity

She said the former president could be held liable for crimes against humanity under a 15-year-old Philippine law.

At yesterday’s quad comm hearing, the ninth, De Lima cited Republic Act (RA) 9851 of 2009 which defines and punishes crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

She argued that RA 9851, enacted two years before the Philippines became a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), covers the systematic killings under Duterte’s drug war.

“The crime of EJKs carried out by state security forces and their agents in the implementation of the war on drugs falls under the general category of ‘other crimes against humanity’ under Section 6, which consists of acts ‘committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack,’” De Lima said, quoting the law.

“These acts include willful killing, extermination, torture and enforced disappearance, among others,” she pointed out.

De Lima emphasized that under RA 9851, those crimes are non-bailable and could be punished by life imprisonment.

She added that the law holds not just the direct perpetrators responsible, but also those in leadership positions who order or induce such crimes. “According to Section 8, a person who orders, solicits or merely induces the systematic attack on the civilian population and which thereafter occurs or is attempted is liable as a principal,” De Lima explained.

“The same applies to anyone who contributes to the commission of the crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose,” she added.

De Lima further pointed out that RA 9851 does not exempt government officials, including heads of state, from criminal responsibility.

“Section 9 provides that ‘official capacity as a head of state or government shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under this Act, nor shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence,’” De Lima said.

The former senator stressed that crimes under RA 9851 are not subject to prescription, meaning those responsible can be prosecuted at any time.

“The crimes defined and penalized under this Act, their prosecution and the execution of sentences imposed on their account, shall not be subject to any prescription,” she said, adding in Filipino, “They can be hunted for life.”

De Lima also noted that the Philippines recognized the authority of international courts like the ICC to prosecute crimes against humanity even before joining the Rome Statute in 2011.

“Through this law, we have recognized the jurisdiction of the ICC over crimes against humanity committed in the Philippines even before we ratified the Rome Statute as a binding treaty,” De Lima said.

Duterte calls Garma

Garma admitted before the quad committee last night that Duterte called her up once through her cellphone last week, but didn’t stop her from giving her testimony.

Garma was initially reluctant to answer the query of ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, with whom she hugged when they bumped into each other in the comfort room, since Garma has been detained at the Batasang Pambansa Complex.

“Tumawag po. He just explained na mapagkakatiwalaan ang Iglesia (ni Cristo). Sabi niya mapagkakatiwalaan sila sa pera,” she said, referring to Iglesia member Edilberto Leonardo whom Garma tagged as the one who handled the alleged cash reward system for drug kills.

Asked if Duterte meant Leonardo could be trusted with money matters, Garma replied, “It can be interpreted that way, maybe, your honor.”

“Hindi niya ako pinigilan (He didn’t stop me),” Garma said, referring to Duterte. “Actually, nag-sorry po ako. Yes, I said sorry.”

Garma also admitted last night to Castro that it was her daughter, a special child who is now with her at the Batasan Complex, who advised her to spill the beans on alleged extrajudicial killings in the previous administration. — Sheila Crisostomo, Delon Porcalla, Emmanuel Tupas