Former President Rodrigo Duterte has declined to comment on former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s submission of the transcript of his Senate testimony on the war on drugs to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC is probing allegations that the Duterte administration committed crimes against humanity in the implementation of the campaign against illegal drugs, which killed more than 6,000 people based on official data.
“Walang ginawa kung hindi magdaldal. Hindi ko nga sinasagot e. Kaya di ko sasagutin,” Duterte said in a report on ”24 Oras Weekend” on Saturday.
(All he [Trillanes] does is talk. I will not respond, as I am not even answering him.)
On October 28, Duterte faced the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee probe on the drug war and said under oath that he was surprised that the Justice Department had not yet brought charges against him for the killings.
Duterte also said he was taking “full, legal responsibility” for his drug war.
Trillanes said that the transcript of the Senate subcommittee probe was submitted on October 30, while the transcripts of the House QuadComm inquiry were submitted last week.
Duterte has not yet attended the QuadComm investigation. He has stated that he wants to attend, but only at a later time.
”Yung testimony ko sa Senate, natanong na naman lahat, that would be the meat or substance ng testimony ko,” the former president said.
(At the Senate, they already asked all questions. That would be the substance or meat of my testimony.)
Before he faced the Senate inquiry, retired Police Colonel Royina Garma revealed at the QuadComm inquiry that in May 2016, then president-elect Duterte had asked her help in forming a team for the implementation of a nationwide drug war campaign patterned after a ”Davao model” that supposedly rewards police officers with money per drug suspect killed.
Duterte told senators that he could not remember calling Garma, a former Cebu City police chief, about the matter. Garma, he added, was lying. —Sherylin Untalan/VBL, GMA Integrated News
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