MANILA, Philippines — Two chairpersons of the House of Representatives’ quad committee have backed calls for the Senate to convene as a a committee of the whole in tackling the alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the previous administrations war on drugs, rather than having Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa lead a probe.

And instead of leading an investigation on the past administration’s anti-drug campaign, quad committee lead presiding officer and Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, along with co-chairperson and Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez believes dela Rosa should just explain the provision of allowances to police officers.

 Earlier, Senator Risa Hontiveros said that she prefers a committee of the whole to investigate former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

“We support the call from Senator Hontiveros to pursue a Senate Committee of the Whole investigation on EJKs in the drug war of the past administration. We are very pleased that both Houses of Congress are of one mind in this,” Barbers said in a statement.

“If it is true that there are ‘allowances’ provided, Senator Bato should explain why a system was created, who was the recipient, and where it came from,” he added. 

“If this is an allowance, we still need to know what is this program’s goal, and if proper steps for the correct use of public funds were observed.”

Barbers was referring to dela Rosa’s admission on Wednesday that Senator Bong Go handed out cash allowances to police officers, and not rewards — contrary to revelations made by retired police colonel Royina Garma that former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war gave out monetary rewards for killing drug suspects during anti-drug operations.

Dela Rosa however maintained that the distribution of allowances was not part of a so-called reward system to encourage police officers to kill drug suspects, as Garma claimed.

Fernandez said that dela Rosa should not lead the investigation because he is a central figure in the drug war, having implemented it as Duterte’s first Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2016 — even coining the term “Oplan Tokhang.”

Go and dela Rosa have denied involvement in the scheme that Garma revealed.

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