đź“·House Committee on Public Order and Safety Chairman and Sta. Rosa Rep. Dan Fernandez
House Committee on Public Order and Safety Chairman and Sta. Rosa Rep. Dan Fernandez said that the congressmen were unaware that payments were being made to the police each time they eliminated a drug suspect.
Fernandez made the remarks in an interview on the program StoryCon on One PH after Sen. Bong Go claimed that congressmen also benefited from former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
For context, Go said that the congressmen applauded every time Duterte mentioned something about war on drugs during the former president’s State of the Nation Addresses (SONA) speeches.
“Standing ovation po ang Kongreso at ang Senado, dahil ramdam nila na may pagbabago po at tinupad ni dating Pangulong Duterte ang kaniyang pinangako noon. Standing ovation. Tapos bakit ngayon, sinisisi siya? Bakit ngayon mag-isa na lang siya? Hindi ba kayo nakinabang?,” Go said.
Fernandez, for his part, said that there was no such thing as killings and payments to execute their implementation of the drug war plan since there was just a policy to arrest drug users and hold pushers accountable.
He added that the true concept of Duterte’s drug war, involving killings in exchange for rewards, has only now been exposed to the public.
“All we know ay mayroon tayong polisiya dyan na hulihin yung mga user at panagutin ang mga pusher. That’s even why nagtayo tayo ng Dangal Rehabilitation Center sa Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Nagtayo tayo ng Balay Silangan para sa rehabilitation ng mga pusher because we all know that the concept of the war on drugs is true and legitimate,” Fernandez said.
“Now na lumalabas na ang isyu na mayroon palang binabayad sa mga kapulisan doon sa kanilang mga napapatay, mga nahuhuling user at pusher , that is something that is not known by the public officials, especially ng mga congressman,” he added.
The House quad committee is currently investigating extrajudicial killings (EJK) related to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Go also said that he is ready to file a resolution in the Senate to conduct a parallel investigation into the war on drugs “so we can uncover the truth.”
It can be recalled that in June of this year, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno revealed that, according to the 2017 year-end accomplishment report from the Office of the President (OP) under the Duterte administration, 20,322 drug suspects were allegedly killed in the country’s war on drugs from July 2016 to November 2017. (TCSP)
