The House quad committee ordered the arrest of police Colonel Hector Grijaldo on Thursday for skipping for the fourth consecutive time its probe into the bloody drug war of the Duterte administration. Grijaldo cited health reasons for not attending.

Grijaldo, who has drawn the ire of the panel for repeatedly snubbing summonses, will be housed at the House detention facility until the committee completes its report, likely early next year. He is expected to spend the holidays in detention.

Police Lt. Col. Leonel Garcia of the Philippine National Police General Hospital’s Orthopedic Department informed lawmakers that Grijaldo underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on 2 December and physiotherapy a day after the operation.

Garcia presumed Grijaldo still has an underlying medical condition, but he said that he is not physically incapacitated to attend the congressional hearing.

Grijaldo was reportedly suffering from shoulder pain due to rotator cuff syndrome and was confined in a private hospital in Pasig City. Lawmakers, however, did not accept Grijaldo’s alibi, citing the suspicious timing of his medical condition.

“Mr. Chair, I think we have given Colonel Hector Grijaldo enough leeway. We have been very kind to him, so I think it’s the right time to make the appropriate motion. He is already overdoing it,” said Taguig Rep. Amparo Maria Zamora.

“This is, I believe, his fourth time to skip the quad comm, but in the Senate he did not have rotator cuff syndrome. I’m sorry, but I believe it’s high time, with the indulgence of all the chairmen, that I move to cite Colonel Hector Grijaldo in contempt,” she said.

Panel chair Ace Barbers approved the motion. “We’re really serious here. This is an affront to the committee that he only makes excuses to avoid being here. Yet, in other committees, he shows up,” Bukidnon Rep. Keith Flores said.

Administrative case

According to Colonel Rowena Acosta, Grijaldo has an ongoing administrative case for neglect of duty for skipping the quad comm’s inquiry on 7 and 26 November.

“In fact, when he was absent during the 10th joint public hearing, our office issued a notice to explain to Grijaldo. [On] 26 November, the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management informed us that they are currently conducting a pre-charge investigation and an admin case for neglect of duty against him,” she told the panel.

The lawmakers were highly suspicious that Grijaldo was merely attempting to evade the congressional probe after he accused Rep. Dan Fernandez and Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. — both Quadcomm co-chairs — of trying to coerce him into corroborating the alleged monetary rewards given to police in exchange for killing drug suspects in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

He made the allegation under oath during the Senate’s parallel probe into extrajudicial killings in October.

Grijaldo accused Abante of trying to convince him to do their bidding by implying that he could get a promotion to police general. He told the senators that he felt “insulted” and “corrupted” by the conversation he had with the two House lawmakers but refused to be influenced by them.

Fernandez and Abante have repeatedly denied the allegation, asserting that they only acted on retired Police Colonel Royina Garma’s recommendation that they meet with Grijaldo, citing his supposed knowledge about the alleged cash rewards.

Garma, a former close aide of Rodrigo Duterte and said to be a former member of the Davao Death Squad, told the Quadcomm that the previous administration’s anti-narcotics operations involved a payout scheme ranging from P20,000 to P1 million, depending on the prominence of the target.

Earlier, Fernandez and Abante said they were willing to relinquish their chairmanships to ensure impartiality in the quad comm’s probe into the allegation made by Grijaldo before the Senate.

The two described Grijaldo’s testimony as a desperate attempt to discredit the quad comm, which is rigorously investigating the notorious drug war that saw more than 7,000 individuals killed, according to government data.

Local and international human rights organizations, however, estimated that the actual death toll was far higher, likely exceeding 30,000, and predominantly affected low-income families and communities.