Hontiveros wants all senators to join parallel probe into Duterte's drug war

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros is pushing to get the entire Senate involved in an investigation into the Duterte administration's war on drugs after two senators who defended or helped implement the violent campaign offered to lead their own inquiries.

Convening the Senate committee of the whole — where all sitting senators and not just committee members will lead a probe — may also encourage more victims and survivors of the drug war to come forward and testify, said Hontiveros during a radio interview on Thursday, October 17. 

"It's very important for us to know the truth about the bloody war on drugs, especially for the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings. So, I will propose to the Senate leadership the establishment of a Senate Committee of the Whole, where the entire Senate will investigate the war on drugs of the previous administration," Hontiveros said in mixed English and Filipino.

In separate statements and interviews, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa and Sen. Bong Go have offered to launch their investigation into the drug war after being accused of overseeing the campaign's worst abuses in different capacities during House quadcom hearings. Go said he would file a resolution calling for a parallel probe, while Dela Rosa said he wanted to launch a motu proprio investigation, with Duterte as one of the resource speakers. 

Self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa accused Dela Rosa during a hearing by the House mega-panel last week of ordering him to implicate staunch Duterte critic and former senator Leila De Lima in the drug trade.

Meanwhile, Go, the former president's top aide, has been tagged as a central figure in the alleged nationwide reward system for drug war killings by retired police colonel Royina Garma.

When asked for her reaction to Dela Rosa's offer to investigate the drug war, Hontiveros said each senator naturally chairs their own committee, which is why a probe by the committee of the whole, led by the Senate president, would give senators an equal opportunity to participate in the inquiry.

In past months, Hontiveros — the other half of the Senate's tiny two-member minority bloc — has been leading several high-profile inquiries uncovering criminal activities tied to Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO) and Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder Apollo Quiboloy. She has rarely commented on the lower chamber's high-profile investigation into the links between POGOs and the Duterte administration's anti-illegal drugs campaign. 

On Thursday, when asked if she believes in the reward system that Duterte and his associates allegedly expanded from Davao City to the whole country, Hontiveros echoed suggestions for the alleged policy to be labeled the "Duterte model" rather than the "Davao model." 

“Based on the testimony from the quad committee hearings in the House of Representatives regarding the issue of extrajudicial killings, Garma mentioned the so-called Davao model. I even saw someone post online that it shouldn’t be called the Davao model, but rather the Duterte model," the senator said.

"To be fair to the area, not the entire Davao City or Davao Region is implicated in EJKs, but according to Garma’s testimony, it is linked to the former president," she added.

Duterte, Go and Dela Rosa have been sent invitations to attend the House quadcom's next hearing, said Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Surigao del Norte, 2nd District) on Tuesday, October 15. All three have had standing invitations since the mega-panel's second or third hearing.

Barbers said inter-parliamentary courtesy will be extended to Go and Dela Rosa if they choose not to show up to the inquiry. Meanwhile, the lawmaker said he would respect Duterte's choice to snub the panel's invitation.

Official figures put deaths from Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign at more than 6,000, but estimates from human rights groups peg the actual number of fatalities as at least 30,000.