Quad Comm to submit initial report before Christmas break

The House Quad Committee intends to release its initial findings before Congress goes into holiday break next week to expedite the proceedings of several remedial measures and the filing of charges against crooks involved in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), and summary killings during the Duterte administration. 

Panel chairperson Ace Barbers said in an interview on Sunday that this “progress report” will aid concerned agencies to immediately and actively pursue criminal cases at the proper courts.

"We have a recommendation based on testimonial evidence and documentary evidence. We saw that perhaps it's high time that we report this and let the appropriate agency conduct further investigation on EJK (extrajudicial killings). We also have that in POGOs and drugs," Barbers said.

According to the chairman, the mega panel will present the report to the plenary on or before Congress goes on recess on 18 December with an aim to muster the support of the supermajority of the House to signal President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to include the bills resulting from the exhaustive hearings in his legislative priorities.

“We are hoping that because this is the output of quad comm, maybe it can be included in the legislative agenda of our President. Or maybe, if we will be lucky, the bill will be certified as urgent so that our counterparts in the Senate could also craft and act on the bills,” he averred.

As of December, quad comm filed at least four bills, which proponents believed would put an end to the proliferation of various criminal activities associated with POGOs, narcotics, and summary killings.

This includes prohibiting all forms of POGOs with a penalty of up to P10 million pesos to violators, expediting the cancellation of birth certificates, forfeiture of real estate illegally acquired by foreign nationals, particularly Chinese, as well as imposing maximum penalties to anyone found guilty of committing EJKs. 

Previous quad comm probes revealed that thousands of Chinese have acquired Filipino citizenship using fake birth certificates and government-issued IDs in an attempt to evade the country's immigration laws and carry out illicit activities.

Some of these Chinese managed to establish corporations and acquired landholdings, including a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga — where a P3.5 billion shabu was seized in September last year — which they used as a front for their illegal activities. 

Barbers had previously claimed that the Chinese nationals own 55 percent of the firm, which is in direct violation of the constitutional limitation of the 60-40 equity.

Apart from drugs and POGOs, the scrutiny also disclosed that the Duterte administration's war on drugs involved a payout scheme, where police were police allegedly being paid up to P1 million to kill drug suspects.

Retired police colonel Royina Garma, the former president's alleged trusted aide claimed the scheme was modeled after the “Davao template,” allegedly developed during Duterte's tenure as Davao City mayor.

Duterte had repeatedly admitted under oath both in the House and Senate that he encouraged police to provoke drug suspects to fight back as a pretext to kill them.

Despite the gravity of his admissions, Duterte insisted that police must be spared from criminal liability, saying he is the sole responsible for the massive killings of his notorious war on drugs.

Barbers said they are planning to terminate the probe into illegal POGOs to have its focus on illicit drugs and EJKs allegedly committed during Duterte’s admin.

More than 7,000 were reported killed under Duterte's war on drugs based on the government’s data. 

Local and international human rights organizations, however, estimated that the figures were a far cry from the actual death toll, probably exceeding 30,000, affecting predominantly low-income families and communities.