A true inquisition court was on full display during the Quadcomm hearing last Wednesday which former President Rodrigo Duterte attended and which included the resurrection of past detractors all in one package.

On the pretext of an investigation in aid of legislation, the House body invited Duterte to the spider’s lair but received a total beating instead as the popularity indicator of the former president again shot to the roof after the nearly eight-hour inquiry.

The effort, which cannot stand up in court because of the inflated claims, including a new figure of 30,000 deaths in the war on drugs presented by Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, tried to wear down Duterte.

Former drug trafficking detainee Leila de Lima and destabilizer Antonio Trillanes IV were spewing discredited claims and the allegations of supposed confessed assassins Edgar Matobato and Arthus Lascañas.

Even the seating arrangement that placed De Lima and Trillanes close to Duterte was intended to intimidate the former president.

It was also noted by many that during the telecast, which was the main TV fare that day, Duterte’s microphone was turned down while that of the interrogators and resource persons were on full blast.

The Quadcomm prepared and took measures to attain a home court advantage against Duterte, after the thrashing that the Senate suffered when he attended its hearing.

Still, the Quadcomm universe was demolished during Mr. Duterte’s attendance by a fact repeatedly stated by the former president: Why was there not a complaint filed against him after he stepped down from office and lost his cloak of immunity?

Some suggestions were that his critics want the International Criminal Court (ICC) to have first crack at Duterte to go around the complementarity principle that the ICC can’t intervene in a case under domestic adjudication.

It was the choice of the former president to attend the Quadcomm hearing.

Initially, Duterte, according to his camp, was reluctant to attend the House proceeding because he had already explained everything during his Senate appearance.

Since the Quadcomm members had been issuing statements accusing him of hiding something, his former spokesman, Salvador Panelo, quoted Duterte as saying, “I will go so that all the things will come out.”

When the Quadcomm issued a notice last Monday that it was canceling Wednesday’s hearing, the former president was already in Manila, according to Panelo. The House body eventually decided to proceed with the Wednesday hearing after getting word that Mr. Duterte would attend.

Panelo said the former president had earlier wanted to attend the hearing but the problem was the first invitation was given on short notice. Mr. Duterte had said he would attend the House hearing but the Senate, in the intervening period, asked him to attend its inquiry.

“Thus, when the House sought his attendance, Mr. Duterte felt that he had said what needed to be said regarding the war on drugs,” according to Panelo. He added that Duterte’s complaint about spending so much of his retirement pay to shuttle between Manila and Davao was not an exaggeration.

“I counted his staff, including his security and nurses, and there were 16 who needed to accompany the ex-president,” he said.

Panelo said he then sent text messages to one of the Quadcomm heads to inform him of Mr. Duterte’s willingness to attend but the communication went unanswered. Later, the confrontation was reset.

During the House hearing as in the Senate, Mr. Duterte consistently used the same arguments during his presidency to defend the methods he used in the anti-narcotics campaign.

Amid the assault of the same lies debunked previously, including the bank account extrapolations of Trillanes, Mr. Duterte went through the whole proceeding without deviating from his previous lines, primarily about assuming full responsibility for the anti-crime drive.

His detractors and the turncoat legislators failed to penetrate Duterte’s bluntness about what he believed in since he never wavered.

For that alone, it is Duterte 2, Congress nil, in the ongoing war on drugs brawl.