ADVERTISEMENT

Manila Bulletin

Philippines

National

Who is the last man standing in the House quad-comm?

Philippines | National

Who is the last man standing in the House quad-comm?

By Ellson Quismorio

At A Glance

The vaunted quad-committee (quad-comm) in the House of Representatives will be unrecognizable in the upcoming 20th Congress, in the event that it will continue to exist. This, as three of its five top leaders have essentially "graduated" from the House after serving three consecutive terms, while only one of the remaining two was successful in his reelection bid during the May 12 polls.

From left to right: Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop, Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante, Santa Rosa City lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez, Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (PPAB)

From left to right: Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop, Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante, Santa Rosa City lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez, Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (PPAB)

The vaunted quad-committee (quad-comm) in the House of Representatives will be unrecognizable in the upcoming 20th Congress, in the event that it will continue to exist.

This, as three of its five top leaders have essentially "graduated" from the House after serving three consecutive terms, while only one of the remaining two was successful in his reelection bid during the May 12 polls.

The three outgoing quad-comm leaders are overall chairman Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, and co-chairmen Santa Rosa City lone district Rep. Dan Fernandez and Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen "Caraps" Paduano.

Barbers, Fernandez, and Paduano chair the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, on Public Order and Safety, and on Public Accoints, respectively in the current 19th Congress.

The remaining co-chairman, Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante, lost a close race to Joey Uy and will not be coming back in the 20th Congress. He chairs the Committee on Human Rights.

The last man standing from the quad-comm's main panel is Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop, the overall vice chairman.

Acop, a former police brigadier general, was proclaimed winner of 2nd district race on Tuesday, May 13. It remains to be seen what role he will take on in the next Congress, but it is expected to be an important one given his status as a stern, veteran legislator.

Since August 2024, the quad-comm had carried out 13 marathon hearings on the previous Duterte administration's bloody war on drugs and purportedly related issues like Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) and money laundering.

The special four-way panel's public hearings became must-see television for its high drama and shocking revelations. At one point, former president Rodrigo Duterte even became a resource person in the hearing.

There has been talks that the quad-comm will stick around in the 20th Congress, which will start in July.

ADVERTISEMENT

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }

{{ item.section_name }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ item.subtitle }}

Read More

function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });

Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.