Former president Rodrigo Duterte (Facebook)

Former president Rodrigo Duterte can now say that he has survived a quad-committee (quad-comm) hearing in the House of Representatives.

Not only that: Duterte can also say that for 13 grueling hours, he was relatively at his best behavior.

The 13 hours of nearly non-stop grilling that the former leader underwent with the quad-comm Wednesday, Nov. 13 outpaced his eight-hour stay with the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee last Oct. 28.

But compared to his expletive-laden testimony before the senators, Duterte’s remarks before the House members contained next to no cuss words. 

For those who kept count, there were at least three mentions of "g*g*" and one "PI", but these were all promptly stricken from the record.

Duterte was praised by overall quad-comm chairman Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers for cooperating with the special four-way panel and for the most part observing proper decorum.

"I'm glad na walang expletives, walang foul language. Although may lumusot na iilan (I'm glad that there were no expletives, no foul language. Although some slipped through)," Barbers said.

"[But] generally, it was all calm, it was all orderly, at higit sa lahat we were able to elicit significant information from him," Barbers said of his fellow Mindanaoan. 

"In fairness to him, he was trying his best to control his emotions maybe, and control his use of language that is not acceptable," he added.

Wednesday's quad-comm hearing began at 10:45 a.m. and was suspended at 11:44 p.m.

The quad-comm and the Blue Ribbon panel are both looking into the previous Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs. 

'Until kingdom come' 

At one point in the hearing, Vice President Sara Duterte, who was among the spectators, privately asked Barbers if her 79-year-old father could already be excused.

From this point on, Barbers and his co-chairmen asked the elder Duterte multiple times if he wanted to rest and leave.

"Hindi ito ang una't huling hearing ng quad-comm (This is not the first and last hearing of the quad-comm)," Barbers said, as he expressed his the mega-panel's desire for Duterte to come back another day.

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To his credit, the former chief executive said he was willing to stay and answer more questions from the congressmen.

He even suggested holding a "continuous hearing of five or 10 days", as he complained that travel from his residence in Davao City to Metro Manila was costly.

"I'm good until two in the morning," Duterte said.

"Every time that I am summoned here, it's expense, hotel, pati eroplano...I'm living on my retirement pay. Wala akong negosyo, tanungin mo kahit sino sa Davao (I don't have a business, you can ask anybody in Davao)," he explained.

"Wala akong outside source except my retirement pay. Ngayon, kung ganito tayo palagi, mamumulubi talaga ako. So mabuti pa, direcho tayo hanggang kingdom come (I don't have an outside source of income, it's only my retirement pay. Now, if we keep doing this, I'll be sent to the poorhouse. So I'd rather that we keep going until kingdom come), until this committee will come to a logical and right decision," he further said.

The hearing was ultimately suspended just before midnight after ex-president Duterte and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel could no longer carry out interpellation in a cordial manner. But Barbers said that this was all because everybody was already tired. 

The quad-comm hearing was held at the People's Center, a building that has very strong air-conditioning. For the latter half of the hearing, the elder Duterte wore a jacket.

He was continuously served cola and juice. He also ate the fast food meal that was served to him.