Santa Rosa lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez (Facebook)

Santa Rosa City lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez said that whiile past Congresses allocated funds to support former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war,, there was never any line item budget that endorsed or incentivized extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under the latter's watch.

Fernandez, a co-chairman of the House quad-committee (quad-comm), had this to say after the mega-panel uncovered testimonies from key witnesses, who confirmed long-held suspicions of a covert reward system that encouraged the killing of drug suspects.

“No cash to kill! There is no line item budget for murder. Walang pong pondo para pumatay ng walang kalaban-labang mga tao (There were no funds for the killing of helpless people)," he said.

"Congress provided the necessary resources to fight the drug menace, not to fund a cash reward system that encouraged the killing of individuals without due process,” underscored Fernandez.

Davao del Norte 1st district Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, the House Speaker during the first two years of the Duterte’s presidency, recently came out with a statement wherein he described Congress--including current members of the quad-comm--as complicit in the bloody war on drugs.

Fernandez noted that the national budgets passed under the Duterte administration earmarked billions for the war on drugs, which was aimed at eliminating the illegal drug trade and reducing crime.

But these funds were not intended for a violent and lawless approach, he said.

“Let it be clear—Congress provided billions of pesos in resources to combat the scourge of illegal drugs, but at no point did the national budget authorize funds for EJKs,” said the veteran solon from Laguna.

Critics of the Duterte drug war have claimed that over 30,000 people were killed during this period.

Headed by overall chairman Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, the quad-comm has been looking into to the alleged slay-for-pay scheme during the previous administration's aggressive anti-narcotics campaign.

Former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Royina Garma had already submitted to the quad-comm two affidavits exposing this alleged reward system, which was supposedly patterned after the so-called “Davao Model".

Before being elected as mayor in 2016, Duterte was a multi-term mayor of Davao City.