Quad comm leads confirm meeting Grijaldo but deny coercion involved

House quad committee leaders have admitted holding a private meeting with Police Colonel Hector Grijaldo but denied that they pressured him to corroborate the supposed cash reward of former president Rodrigo Duterte to cops in exchange for killing drug suspects.

In a briefing on Tuesday, panel co-chairs Dan Fernandez and Bienvenido Abante Jr. confirmed that they had a closed-door meeting with Grijaldo prior to the Senate hearing on Monday but “not on [their] own violation.”

Fernandez asserted that they only submitted with retired police colonel Royina Garma’s recommendation to meet Grijaldo, citing his supposed knowledge about the alleged cash reward scheme.

"It was Colonel Garma that asked [us] to talk to Colonel Grijaldo because Colonel Grijaldo, according to Col. Garma, is a friend of hers... Unfortunately, what he said about coercion and harassment never happened,” Fernandez told reporters in a mix of Filipino and English.

“If we used force on him during that time, there was still a lot of time for him to react, but he did nothing,” he added.

At the Senate’s first hearing into Duterte’s notorious drug war on Monday, Grijaldo accused Fernandez and Abante of coaching him to corroborate Garma’s affidavit at the quadcomm’s previous inquiry about the so-called incentives in the previous administration’s anti-drug operations.

Grijaldo claimed that Abante lured him to yield to their recommendation by implying that he could be promoted to police general.

The police officer said that he felt “insulted” and “corrupted” by the conversation he had with the two lawmakers, but he refused to be influenced.

Fernandez, on the other hand, explained the meeting was merely part of the “vetting process” and that they were accompanied by two lawyers of Garma, ensuring “the spirit of transparency.”

The lawmaker, nonetheless, said they would not take Grijlado’s accusations sitting down, citing the gravity of his testimony that was made under oath.

“First and foremost, it was a demolition. Second, it's an attack against me, and most likely they really wanted to discredit the whole of the quadcomm, and it's quite unfair," Fernandez stressed. “And it is incumbent upon the leadership of the quadcomm and the House as well to take action on this.”

Abante, meanwhile, suspected that Grijaldo made the allegations in an attempt to wash his hands in the bloody drug war.

Grijaldo, a classmate and a “friend” of Garma, was then the Mandaluyong police chief when Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board secretary and retired police brigadier general Wesley Barayuga was shot dead by a riding-in tandem shortly after leaving the office in July 2020.

Garma and resigned National Police Commission chief Edilberto Leonardo were the alleged masterminds behind the ambush plot.

"He was the chief of police in Mandaluyong [when] general Barayuga was killed. Where is the police report? Nothing. What does this mean? Colonel Garma said he knows a lot,” Abante stressed.

Both Garma and Leonardo were reportedly closely associated with Duterte and believed to be former members of the Davao Death Squad (DDS).

During the recent hearing of the quad comm, Leonardo confirmed under oath the existence of a cash reward system under Duterte’s watch, adding weight to Garma and Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido’s previous testimonies.

Leonardo was purportedly handpicked by Duterte to head the task force tasked to implement the nationwide killing, which was modeled after the “Davao template.”

The model was allegedly developed during Duterte's tenure as Davao City mayor that also rewards cops with cash in exchange for killing those involved in drugs.

Garma previously disclosed that the monetary rewards ranged from P20,000 to P1 million, depending on the prominence of the target.

Duterte confirmed to the Senate probe that he had a death squad comprised of “gangsters” and not police.