CONGRESSMAN Paolo Duterte wanted the opportunity to grill the resource persons in the House of Representatives quad committee hearing on alleged extrajudicial killings and the illegal drug trade in the country.
With this, the House quad committee said on Sept. 19 that it would invite Duterte to its next hearing after receiving his letter expressing intent to raise questions.
Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, House committee on public accounts chair, made the announcement during the continuation of the quad comm hearing on Thursday.
“We have received a copy of a letter coming from Hon. Paolo Duterte with regard to some queries, addressed to quad committee chairmen,” he said.
“The letter states that there are questions that the Hon. Paolo Duterte wishes to ask the resource persons. May we just ask the committee secretary to please make sure that the invitation will be extended to Paolo Duterte in the next quad comm hearing with the topic of drugs and extrajudicial killings,” quad comm lead co-chair Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said.
Following this, Barbers ordered the committee secretary to send an invitation to Duterte for the seventh hearing focused on the issue of illegal drugs and EJK.
During the first hearing, Duterte was implicated by former Customs Intelligence Office Jimmy Guban in an illegal drug smuggling incident in 2018. The lawmaker denied the allegations.
It was learned that former President Rodrigo Duterte was also invited to the hearing to clarify the issues alleged against him.
