Former president Rodrigo Duterte (left), Santa Rosa City lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez (Malacañang photo, Facebook))

Perhaps now is the perfect time for former president Rodrigo Duterte to reiterate that his threat to kill drug lords is just a "joke". 

Otherwise, Duterte has a lot of explaining to do before the House quad-committee (quad-comm)¹1, which is investigating his alleged link to the August 2016 illing of three convicted Chinese drug lords at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) in Davao del Norte. 

Thus, said Santa Rosa City lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez, one of the four chairmen of the vaunted quad-comm, in a virtual press conference on Friday, Aug. 23. 

"This is the right moment for the former administration, especially to its former officials and the former president, to justify that they were correct in saying that the pronouncements of the former President were all jokes or strong words but are not real," Fernandez said. 

“We still remember the time when the former President was always saying, 'Papapatayin kita, maihulog kita sa helicopter (I will kill you, I will throw you out of the helicopter)'—things like that," he noted. 

During the quad-committee’s second public hearing on Thursday, Aug. 22, DPPF inmates Fernando “Andy” Magdadaro and Leopoldo "Tata" Tan Jr. admitted to stabbing to death Chu Kin Tung, alias Tony Lim; Li Lan Yan, alias Jackson Li; and Wong Meng Pin, alias Wang Ming Ping within their shared jail cell. 

The duo said they did so to fulfill a "job" offer that was allegedly coursed through jail officials by then-president Duterte. 

The quad-comm has invited Duterte to the next hearing in order to shed light on the grim allegation. 

The three Chinesex nationals were serving sentences for their involvement in illegal drug activities. Two of them previously convicted for operating a drug laboratory in Parañaque City. 

Magdadaro and Tan were promised P3 million for the job, but they only received P1 million each, for a total of P2 million. They were told that they would get a presidential pardon, but this also wasn't fulfilled.