November 15, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s testimony at the House quad committee hearing on Wednesday garnered nearly two million views on YouTube.
The 11th public hearing, cut into two parts on the House of Representatives channel, had a combined 1.922 million views some time after the livestream ended, with the first part tallying 1.2 million views and slowing down to 722,000 views on the second part.
The livestream lasted for about 13 hours.
At the hearing, the 79-year-old Duterte confirmed many of the allegations hurled against him, except for a few details.
Duterte stood his ground that he alone should be indicted for all the actions – rightly or wrongly – taken by law enforcers in his six-year war against illegal drugs.
Duterte had also gestured as if to take a swing at former senator Leila de Lima, who sat beside him. Duterte also lost his cool and tried to hurl a microphone at former senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
Unlike in his Oct. 28 testimony before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee where he dominated the entire proceeding, Duterte relatively behaved properly. He uttered an expletive once and apologized for it.
Meanwhile, the Oct. 11 hearing attended by retired police colonel Royina Garma garnered 1.3 million views.
Garma, a trusted aide of Duterte in his war against drugs, had wept and dropped a bombshell testimony about how police officers were rewarded for killing drug suspects.
Rep. Dan Fernandez yesterday said that the quad comm will no longer invite Duterte and Garma to its next hearing.
Duterte’s testimony on the alleged reward system during the drug war is enough for lawmakers, Fernandez told The STAR.
“The former president confirmed already the statement of Col. Garma about the reward system. I think no need for them to be invited on that particular issue,” he said.
Duterte’s former presidential adviser Salvador Panelo said the former president does not need to attend another quad comm hearing since he has already provided a comprehensive statement on all the questions thrown by congressmen.
Garma has yet to return to the Philippines after being denied entry to the US earlier this week.
Sen. Grace Poe on Wednesday cited the Bureau of Immigration (BI) as saying that Garma was allowed to fly to the US as no lookout bulletin order was issued against her due to the absence of cases over her alleged involvement in the killing of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board secretary Wesley Barayuga.
Poe told Sen. Ronald dela Rosa that the BI was aware of Garma’s lifted contempt order.
Dela Rosa had suspected Garma was allowed to escape after the quad comm lifted the contempt order as she testified about Duterte’s alleged reward system.
As for Duterte’s admission of extrajudicial killings, Rep. Gabriel Bordado Jr. called for stringent accountability measures.
Duterte admitted to killing six or seven people in Davao City, saying they were criminals. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Marc Jayson Cayabyab
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