Former president Rodrigo Duterte will confront members of the House quad-committee investigating the previous administration’s bloody war on drugs on the cancellation of the scheduled hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 13, after the former chief executive accepted the invitation.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte and former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo (File Photo/PCOO)
This was announced by the former presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo via a statement sent to the media on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
“PRRD and I will go to Batasang Pambansa tomorrow at 10 a.m. and confront the Quad Committee members why after demanding his presence and accepting their invitation and coming here last night, they will just cancel it without prior notice,” he said.
In fact, the former president will even dare the quad-comm members to a “marathon hearing.”
“He will ask them to schedule a marathon hearing of ten days,” Panelo added.
On Monday, Nov. 11, Duterte accepted the invitation to attend the 11th hearing of the quad-committee scheduled on Wednesday.
But the House Of Representatives’ website showed that the joint hearing of the House committees on dangerous drugs, public accounts, public order and safety, and human rights set on Nov. 13 had been cancelled.
This was supposed to be the first time that Duterte will attend the House quad-comm’s hearing into the alleged extrajudicial killings during his term in the name of the war on drugs campaign.
He skipped the 10th hearing of the committee last Nov. 7 after questioning the integrity of some lawmakers.
Last month, he instead attended a similar hearing in the Senate.