Two prisoners who claimed to have killed three Chinese nationals inside a Davao jail in 2016, allegedly in exchange for P3 million and their freedom, on Thursday implicated former President Rodrigo Duterte in the alleged hit jobs.

At the joint hearing of four committees of the House of Representatives, inmate Leopoldo Tan, under heavy guard and wearing a bullet-proof vest, said the kill order came from his former classmate, SPO4 Arthur Narsolis.

Ordered permanently silenced, according to Tan, were Chu Kin Tung, Jackson Lee and Peter Wang for P1 million each and the facilitation of his and his accomplice’s release from the Davao Prison and Penal Farm.

Two of the Chinese were reportedly convicted of operating a drug laboratory in Parañaque City. Tan said he carried out the murders with another inmate, Fernando Magdadaro, while they and the victims were held at the disciplinary dormitory.

Tan and Magdadaro told the lawmakers they stabbed the three Chinese to death on the evening of 13 August 2016, or just weeks after Duterte took office as president.

The House quad committee said it would summon the former president anew to its next hearing.

Tan is in prison on drug-related charges. He claimed that after the killings he overheard jail superintendent Gerardo Padilla talking to someone over the phone, allegedly Duterte, who congratulated him for a “job well done.”

Padilla allegedly instructed Tan and Magdadaro to dispose of the weapons they used in killing the three Chinese.

“I knew that Superintendent Padilla was talking to President Duterte because I was familiar with his (Duterte’s) voice,” Tan said in Filipino.

“After the call, Superintendent Padilla said to his colleagues, ‘the President called, he congratulated me,’” he added.

Tan and Magdadaro said they split P2 million of the P3 million promised them. Magdadaro said their promised release from prison never happened, which made them decide to testify at the House hearing.

Duterte summoned

“Everything I said is true, and no one taught or influenced me to do this. I’m also aware that this could be used against me or work against my favor,” Magdadaro said.

After Tan implicated Duterte, Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. moved to invite the former president to the next hearing, with the motion approved by Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers.

Barbers chairs the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, one of the four committees investigating alleged drug-related extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

Salvador Panelo, presidential legal adviser during the Duterte administration, brushed aside the allegations of Tan and Magdadaro. Duterte’s former spokesperson, Harry Roque, dubbed the claims against Duterte “hearsay.”

“The demolition job on the Dutertes is in full swing,” Panelo said, adding that the enemies of the former president are using convicted felons who have “nothing to lose since they are in jail for life.”

“Obviously, they are making those statements for a consideration. If it is true, as they say, that they killed the three Chinese in exchange for money and their release from prison, necessarily they can lie about FPRRD’s (former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte) alleged link to the murders for the same consideration of money and freedom coming from those who want to destroy the Dutertes,” Panelo said.

Collateral damage

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., who heads the House Committee on Human Rights — also a member of the so-called quad committee — again urged Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, as the first chief of the Philippine National Police when Duterte was president, to attend the hearing.

“I want to tell Senator Bato dela Rosa that I hope he attends so that he won’t have to use the media to talk about this,” Abante said.

“He (Dela Rosa) said the 20,000 killed during the drug war were collateral damage. My goodness! You killed 20,000 because of the war on drugs and you only call it collateral damage,” he said.

The House joint committee had invited Duterte and Dela Rosa to the hearings, but the two have persistently ignored the invitation, saying the congressional probe was not the proper forum to discuss the alleged extrajudicial killings.

Dela Rosa also cited the principle of inter-parliamentary courtesy where the two chambers of Congress do not meddle in each other’s affairs.

Aside from Barbers’s and Abante’s committees, the “quad comm” is comprised of the Committees on Public Accounts and Public Order. The probe was initially intended to identify possible links between illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), the illicit drug trade, and the alleged EJKs.