The arrogant Davao City killer ex-mayor and ex-president Rodrigo Roa Duterte was in his boastful self before the live-streamed Senate QUAD Committee hearing last October 29. He somehow felt confident with the presence of his "lifetime" aide Sen. Bong Go, chief police loyalist Sen. Bato de la Rosa, dynast Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, and Sen. Robin Padilla who heaped praises in his opening statement of his “War on Drugs” administration.
One of the resource persons, Police Col. Hector Grijaldo Jr. even dared, reading his affidavit, to accuse the House QUAD Committee co-chairs, Cong. Dan Fernandez and Cong. Bienvenido Abante Jr. of coercing him to confirm the drug war rewards system mentioned by retired Police Col. Royina Garma in her affidavit.
After Atty. Chel Diokno’s power point comprehensive presentation of the “War on Drugs” victims, and former CHR Commissioner Leila de Lima’s detailed report on the EJKs in Davao, ex-president Rodrigo Roa Duterte was in his brutally frank self, as noted by the Inquirer.
Quote Unquote
“I have a death squad. It has seven members. But they are not police officers. They are gangsters.”
At one point he pointed to Sen. Ronald Bato de la Rosa and said, “That senator, the one seated there, he’s also (a member) of the death squad.”
“Let’s be frank. What I told them was ‘encourage the criminals to fight, encourage them to draw their guns.’ That’s my instruction.”
“When they do, kill them to end the problem in my city. When I became president, that’s what I said during the command conference in Malacañang. That’s my order.”
“I have been killing people for a long time, but they have yet to file a case against me.”
“Do not question my policies because I offer no apologies, no excuses. The war on illegal drugs is not about killing people. It is about protecting the innocents and the defenseless.”
“My job as president was never easy and it was not to be. I and I alone take full legal responsibility.”
Accountable
Let the people judge, and lawyers have declared such self-incriminating testimonies can be used by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigation of RR Duterte’s alleged “Crimes Against Humanity.”
But under the leadership-tandem of President Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte, will Mr. Rodrigo Roa Duterte be held to account soon for his crimes? And that is along with his close aide Sen. Bong Go, Sen. Ronald "Bato" de la Rosa, and his police generals involved in his bloody “War on Drugs”?
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