Quadchoke

The almighty Quad Committee (Quadcomm) inquisition court appeared to have folded after taking a beating from former President Rodrigo Duterte during an eight-hour interrogation disguised as a public hearing.

The head of the combined House panels, Surigao Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, said the Quadcomm will not share with the International Criminal Court (ICC) the transcripts of its hearings, which delved mostly into the drug war and other recycled allegations against the former president.

Barbers used the excuse that the country is not obligated to the war crimes court unless it returns to it as a member. Last September, however, Barbers, in one of the hearings of the Quadcomm, welcomed the ICC’s full use of the results of the proceedings for its ongoing investigation.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reiterated that the Philippines will not cooperate with the ICC investigation, but it will not obstruct the international body in its probe either.

“I maintain that we don’t give them the transcript. Until we become a member and until there is a directive coming from no less than our President, maybe that’s the only time we will change our position,” Barbers said.

Barbers was among the most vocal defenders of the Duterte campaign against narcotics at the time.

Former movie actor and Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez, also a Quadcomm head, said the ICC should not meddle with the local judiciary.

On the instigation of left-wing House members France Castro and Arlene Brosas, the former president dared the ICC to complete its investigation into the crimes against humanity charges against him.

Duterte encouraged the international tribunal, which is mired in a crisis due to a sexual misconduct scandal involving Prosecutor Karim Khan, to hurry up or lose the chance to prosecute him because of his advanced age.

“ICC, ma’am? I am asking the ICC to hurry up, and if possible, they can come here and start the investigation tomorrow. This issue has been left hanging for so many years,” Duterte said.

Castro, along with failed putschist Antonio Trillanes IV, was adamant that the ICC exploit the outcome of the Quadcomm hearings as evidence against Duterte.

The last hearing was seen by many as a public lynching of Duterte, with all his most vicious critics present and a new, inflated, but unsubstantiated figure of 30,000 deaths in the war on drugs unveiled.

The Quadcomm heads are also becoming skeptical in assessing the evidence presented to them, primarily the bank records that Trillanes claimed were transactions involving Duterte and Davao drug syndicates.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) had denied the existence of the bank accounts that Trillanes referred to, which the veteran destabilizer admitted were obtained not through legal channels during the 2016 election campaign, when a deluge of fake revelations were made.

Barbers said the panel will not readily accept the presentation of Trillanes but will invite the AMLC to verify the documents.

The anti-Duterte gang also relied heavily on the testimonies of confessed assassins Arturo Lascañas and Edgar Matobato, which were dismissed as falsehoods during previous congressional hearings where most of the leaders of the Quadcomm were present.

The way Barbers phrased it, Trillanes failed to convince the panel leaders that his recycled allegations were the “smoking gun” against Duterte.

In sum, like the Senate, the Quadcomm believed it had led Duterte into an ambush in the inquisition-style proceeding, with all his political enemies present. But, to its dismay, it received a beating from the brutally frank Davao City mayoral candidate.

Thus, the Quadcomm’s retreat.