Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Friday said that he is considering the Blue Ribbon Committee to lead the proposed motu proprio investigation into the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Escudero earlier explained that only the Blue Ribbon panel has the power to conduct a motu proprio investigation.
Although it is not final yet, the Senate president said that the direction of the chamber is for the Blue Ribbon to conduct the motu proprio investigation while Congress is not in session.
If the investigation will be conducted when the Senate resumes session, Escudero said it will be handled by the Justice and Human Rights Committee.
“We are looking into several options and that is one of them,” Escudero told GMA News Online in a Viber message.
The decision will be finalized after Escudero’s consultation with Senator Bong Go, who filed the resolution to launch an inquiry into the previous administration’s drug war, and Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who earlier said that his committee on public order and dangerous drugs will conduct a motu proprio probe into the matter.
Despite this, Escudero indicated that the proposal of Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros to convene the Committee of the Whole to investigate the drug war is not off the table yet.
The Blue Ribbon Committee is chaired by Senator Pia Cayetano while the Justice and Human Rights Committee is led by Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.
In a Viber message to reporters, Pimentel said that he “will have to handle” the investigation as a professional in case the resolution will be referred to his committee.
“If referred to Justice [Committee] then I will have to handle it like the professional that I am (on drug war probe),” Pimentel, an ex-ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, said.
A parallel Senate investigation into the Duterte administration’s drug war was floated by Go after former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager and retired police colonel Royina Garma testified in a House QuadComm hearing that Duterte wanted to implement a “Davao model” of the war on drugs on a national scale. Duterte is a former Davao City mayor.
Garma said this system involves rewards, including prize money that ranged from P20,000 to P1 million, for drug suspects killed.
Go denied the existence of such system and refuted claims that he was involved in handling the money for the supposed rewards. He described Garma’s claims as “unsubstantiated.”
Dela Rosa also said he knows nothing about the supposed “reward system” in the killing of drug suspects during the previous administration.
The PNP earlier said it would reopen the investigation into several cold cases of local officials killed at the height of the Duterte administration’s violent campaign against narcotics.
Malacañang on Wednesday said it supports the possible reopening of investigation into the high-profile killings related to the drug war.
Government records show that there were at least 6,200 drug suspects killed in police operations from June 2016 to November 2021, but several human rights groups have refuted this and say that the number may have reached as much as 30,000 due to unreported related killings.—AOL, GMA Integrated News
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