Drug war merely a budol - lawmaker

"Nabudol tayo (We've been had)!" This was how a member of the quad committee of the House of Representatives described the alleged "cover-up" of the high-level drug activities of former president Rodrigo Duterte, through his deadly war on drugs.

- By JOSE RODEL CLAPANO

"Ladies and gentlemen, the quad comm has started to uncover a grand criminal enterprise and it would seem that at the center of it is former president Duterte," Anti-polo Rep. Romeo Acop said at last Thursday's quad comm hearing on extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

"Napakasakit po nito dahil pawang tayo ay nabudol (This really hurt because we had been fooled)," Acop said. "We will leave no stone unturned."

The committee will commence its investigation in 2025.

The hearing last Thursday was the quad comm's 13th and last for the year. Quad comm is composed of the committees on dangerous drugs, public order and safety, human rights and public accounts.

He said that based on evidence gathered by the committee during its hearings, Duterte's "war on drugs" was only a cover for the former president's "grand criminal enterprise" involving ranking government officials.

Information gathered by quad comm indicated that Duterte and his inner circle actually profited from the drug trade they had publicly vowed to eliminate, he said.

"Our job here with the quad comm is difficult. Nobody wanted to cross a popular former president. But like the president, we are elected by the people," Acop, a former police officer, said.