Former president Rodrigo Duterte (Keith Bacongco/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House quad-committee (quad-comm) plans to look into former president Rodrigo Duterte's use of intelligence funds during his Palace tenure on the suspicion that the money was used for his administration's bloody drug war. 

Quad-comm co-chairman, Santa Rosa City lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez shared these details to House reporters in an interview on Tuesday, Oct. 15. 

This suspicion was mainly fueled by former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Royina Garma's testimony during the last hearing of the mega-panel wherein she accused Duterte of spearheading in 2016 a nationwide, cash reward-driven war on illegal drugs that allegedly encouraged the killing of drug suspects. 

"Initially kasi parang may nakita kami doon eh, doon sa intel fund from...certain months lang ata parang medyo malaki ‘yong nagamit. So siguro ‘yon din ang isang magandang imbestigahan kung talagang ‘yong intel fund were used for that," Fernandez said. 

(Because initially we saw something there, there in the intel fund from...certain months only I think a big portion was used. So maybe that's one good thing to investigate, if the intel funds were used for that.) 

Confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) are secret funds in the national budget that don't undergo the normal auditing process. 

"Especially doon sa panahon na ano, alam mo ‘yong panahon yung may pinatay na mga Chinese doon sa Davao, di ba? Yung tatlo. Well baka doon nanggaling, ‘yong moment na trinansfer ‘yong pera, maaaring doon makita," said the Laguna solon. 

(Especially during the time of, when the Chinese were killed in Davao, right? The trio. Maybe that's where it came from, the moment the money was transferred, maybe we can see it there. 

Fernandez was referring to the killings of drug lords Chu Kin Tung, Li Lan Yan, and Wong Meng Pin in August 2016 within their shared jail cell a the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) in Davao del Norte. 

Quad-comm resource persons have testified that the killings--allegedly a "hit" ordered by Garma and former National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo--fetched a reward of P3 million, or P1 million per head. 

In her testimony last Oct. 11, Garma confirmed that cash rewards for drug war kills ranged from P20,000 for street-level suspects to P1 million for "chemists, traders, manufacturers, financiers, and ninja cops".  

Fernandez also noted "a sudden jump" in intelligence fund from the time of the late former president Benigno S. Aquino III, to his direct successor, Duterte. 

"Makikita mo malaki ‘yong intel fund na hiningi ni ano eh, ni former president [Duterte] doon (You can see that former president [Duterte] asked for a huge amount of intel fund). So we will be asking what's the reason behind [it]." 
 

READ THIS:

https://mb.com.ph/2024/10/14/barbers-quad-comm-want-garma-to-go-all-the-way

Asked if there's a legal basis to probe the intel fund spending of the ex-president, Fernandez said: "Now that na nagkakaroon ng ganitong mga klase ng (Now that we have this kind of an) issue and it pertains to the life of our people, I think it's imperative on the side of the Congress to impose that oversight function that we have." 

"Kung talagang merong ganitong abusive intent doon sa paggamit ng intel fund to kill people and pay those who perpetrate it, then I think kailangan nating i-tighten up pa ‘yong pagli-liquidate ng mga pera," he added. 

(If there was truly an abusive intent in the use of intel fund to kill people and pay those who perpetrate it, then I think we need to tighten up the liquidation of money.)