From left to right: Cassandra Ong, Alice Guo, Royina Garma (Facebook)

Expect the House of Representatives to continue grilling the likes of Cassandra Ong, Alice Guo, and Royina Garma in marathon hearings even during the upcoming month-long congressional recess. 

This, as Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante Jr. bared over the weekend that the House quad-committee (quad-comm) would continue to hold its hearings during the break. 

Abante is one of the four co-chairmen of the special four-way panel, which has launched an inquiry into the alleged interconnected issues of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), illegal drugs, money-laundering, and the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the previous Duterte administration. 

"We will continue on kahit break sapagkat nakita po namin yung involvement ng isang sindikato at nakita rin po natin na napakalaki ng involvement ng ilang mg heneral dito. Unless otherwise mabuwag natin at makita natin sa loob ng Philippine National Police (PNP) ang mga heneral na involve sa drugs, hindi mawawala ang drug problem sa Pilipinas," Abante said. 

(We will continue to hold hearings even during the break because we've seen the involvement of a syndicate as well at the huge involvement of several generals here. Unless otherwise we are able to dismantle this and the generals who are involved in illegal drugs continue exist within the PNP, the Philippines will never get rid of its drug problem.) 

The quad-comm has so far carried out six marathon hearings, and the rabbit hole uncovered by Abante and his fellow House members has been quite long, 

The Manila lawmaker said it will take more time for them to exposep everything that needs to be exposed. 

"Palagay ko mahaba haba pa. We would like to finish that kasi malapit na ang filing [ng certificates of candidacy] di ba? You know pag nag-file ka parang campaign period na yan so talagang sabi ko nga eh we have to be in our own district para mag barangay na kami. pero still we really have to finish this job," he said. 

(I think we have a long way to go. We would liked to finish that because the filing of certificates of candidacy is right around the corner, right? When the filing starts, it's like the campaign period already so that why I said we have to be in our own district and make rounds in barangays. But still we really have to finish this job.) 

"We do not want this to happen anymore, kawawa po ang Pilipinas (The Philippines is pitiful)," added Abante. 

The quad-comm is coming off its sixth hearing wherein it listened to the explosive testimony of former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog. 

Abante said that the quad-comm will once again switch gears next week and tackle EJK. "Maganda ito sapagkat ito yung binabanggit ninyo tungkol kay Jed Mabilog, eh we are going to invite him again." 

(This is good because that's what Jed Mabilog mentioned, we are going to invite him again.) 

"Mayroong isang former colonel yata, I think it's Colonel Diaz na sinabi kay Mabilog na, sige tatawagan ka ni General [Ronald Bato] Dela Rosa para mag usap kayong dalawa. Baka patawag din namin yun," said the co-chairman. 

(I think there's a former colonel, I think it's Colonel Diaz, whom according to Mabilog said he would be contacted by General Dela Rosa so the two of them could talk. We might jnvite him too.) 

Mabilog was included in then-president Rodrigo Duterte's dreaded narco-list in 2017. This forced him to go on self-imposed exile in the United States (US) for the next seven years. 

The quad-comm has assailed Duterte's narco-list for being based on nothing more than mere gossip.