Police Colonel Hector Grijaldo is now serving his detention in the House of Representatives and will remain there through Christmas after being cited in contempt for repeatedly snubbing congressional summons, Quad Committee chairperson Ace Barbers disclosed Monday. 

"Colonel Grijaldo is now detained in the detention facility of the House of Representatives since 14 December... He will probably spend Christmas and New Year here," Barbers told reporters in an ambush interview. 

Unlike other personalities, such as Cassandra Li Ong, a key figure in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, who was detained but now freed by the panel due to the “spirit of Christmas,” Grijaldo will be exempted for defying the committee’s invitation to attend the hearing not once, not twice but four times.

“In fact, he snubbed the invitation of the House four times after coming out in the Senate and said a lot [of accusations there]. When we invited him here [to the House], he just snubbed it. He has shown disrespect [and] insult to the lower house,” Barbers lamented. 

The committee ordered the arrest of Grijaldo on Thursday after lawmakers went ballistic for his continued absence, citing rotator cuff syndrome or shoulder ailment. 

Police Lieutenant Colone Leonel Garcia of the Philippine National Police General Hospital’s Orthopedic Department informed the committee that Grijaldo underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on 2 December and one day postoperatively went through physiotherapy. 

"He wants to stay in the hospital and have a hospital arrest. But of course, we did not allow that, because according to his doctors, he is ambulatory, he can walk. There's no reason for him to stay in the hospital," Barbers asserted.

Lawmakers have contended that Grijaldo is merely attempting to evade the congressional probe after implicating Santa Rosa Rep. Dan Fernandez and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. — both quad comm co-chair — of coercing him into corroborating the so-called monetary rewards given to police in exchange for killing drug suspects under the former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. 

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

Grijaldo made the allegations during the parallel probe of the Senate into the EJK in October. Fernandez and Abante have warned Grijaldo that they would not his accusations sitting down, citing the gravity of his testimony that was made under oath. 

Retired police colonel Royina Garma, Duterte’s alleged trusted aide, had told the quad comm that the previous admin’s anti-narcotic operations involved a payout scheme with money ranging from P20,000 to P1 million depending on the prominence of the target.

Fernandez and Abante have pledged that they were willing to relinquish their chairmanship to ensure impartiality in the quad comm’s discussion on the allegations made by Grijaldo before the Senate.

Apart from his alleged fake testimony in the Senate, Barbers said Grijaldo has a lot of explaining to do regarding the killing of retired police colonel and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board secretary Wesley Barayuga, who was shot dead in July 2020 over allegations of involvement in illegal drug trade.

“I remember he was the chief of police of Mandaluyong City, and apparently no reports were made. And it was said belatedly in the report that he was involved in drugs,” he told the media.

Garma and resigned National Police Commission chief Edilberto Leonardo were accused of masterminding the assassination plot of Barayuga which occurred at the height of an ongoing investigation against the supposed corruption and illegal practices, most specifically in the operations of STL (small town lottery) during Garma’s tenure as general manager in the PCSO.