Past Congresses Backed Duterte’s Drug War, but Not EJKs, Says Abante

Past Congresses supported and financed the Duterte administration's anti-drug efforts, but not its plans to kill drug suspects, a senior lawmaker said Thursday.

Quad Committee co-chair Bienvenido Abante Jr. acknowledged that previous Congresses allocated billions for former President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs but clarified that this funding was not intended for the so-called extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of drug users, particularly small-time pushers.

"The objective of this campaign was to end the threat posed by illegal drugs, not to cut short the lives of innocent men, women, and children,” Abante told reporters.

Human rights lawyer Chel Diokno testified before the committee that at least 20,322 individuals were killed from July 2016 to November 2017 due to Duterte's drug war, citing a Supreme Court resolution. However, local and international human rights organizations estimate the death toll exceeds 30,000, predominantly affecting low-income families and communities.

Police officers, including retired police colonel Royina Garma, who testified before the committee, disclosed that law enforcement was motivated to kill drug suspects due to cash rewards. Garma, who was allegedly a trusted aide of Duterte, claimed the incentives ranged from P20,000 to P1 million, depending on the prominence of the target.

This payout scheme was modeled after the so-called "Davao template," purportedly established during Duterte's tenure as mayor of Davao City, which also rewarded cops with cash for killing those involved in drugs.

Garma’s allegations supported earlier testimony from Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, who was the first to confirm kill orders, quotas, and payout schemes for killing drug suspects.

While lawmakers were fully supportive of Duterte's anti-drug campaign, no funds were specifically allocated for the murder of innocent, poor Filipinos under the General Appropriations Act.

“Worse, some law enforcers, particularly from the PNP, competed over who to kill, regardless of whether the targets were legitimate, all for substantial monetary rewards," Abante stressed.

“In simple terms, the Duterte government used taxpayers’ money, through intelligence funds, to kill thousands of Filipino drug suspects deprived of due process, including innocents," he added.

At the height of the bloody campaign in 2016, Duterte openly acknowledged the existence of EJKs but contended they were not state-sponsored.

The committee is determined to review whether Duterte tapped into intelligence funds to finance the alleged cash reward system, given the abrupt increase in requests for such funds compared to the administration of his predecessor, the late Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III.

A previous report from the Commission on Audit revealed that Duterte spent a total of P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) in 2021, his last full year in office, a figure significantly higher than the P500 million CIF spent by Aquino in his final year in 2015.