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Senate Hearing turned into a Platform for Denial

By: Baby Cuevas

Despite Senator Risa Hontiveros’s unwavering attempt to uphold a level of professionalism, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing conducted on October 28, 2024 swiftly devolved into a platform for former President Rodrigo Duterte to raise his self-defense and sidestep accountability for the heinous acts attributed to him and his regime’s enforcers.

Brave voices like Atty. Chel Diokno, former Senator Leila De Lima, families of victims of extrajudicial killings (“EJK”) and Fr. Flavie Villanueva were met not with empathy, but with contempt. Rather than engage with their testimonies, Duterte loyalists denounced them as “politicizing” the former administration’s policies.

Worse, they were openly blamed for the tragedies that had scarred them. Every critique leveled at Duterte was met with fierce rebuttals from Bato Dela Rosa, who went beyond mere disagreement, mocking the courage it took to stand against Duterte’s record. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada seemed oblivious to the gravity of the proceedings, jesting and scoffing at the revelations, drawing a reprimand from Sen. Hontiveros.


Duterte and his allies, on the other hand, were welcomed with astonishing reverence. Despite the former president’s crude language and shocking admissions—including his chilling acknowledgments of orchestrated killings—he faced no serious scrutiny. His confessions of mass murder and other crimes were shrugged off, even applauded. Senators Robin Padilla and Bong Go added fuel to this mockery, lauding Duterte as a protector of the Philippines, claiming his acts were sacrifices for the nation’s good—a flagrant slap in the face to EJK victims, their grieving families and the moral core of the country.

The few Senators who sought a proper investigation found their efforts drowned in the sham proceedings. From the outset, the deck was stacked against justice as figures like Bato Dela Rosa and Bong Go—named high-level enforcers of Duterte’s administration—were inexplicably part of the investigatory body. Dela Rosa himself, the very person assigned to probe these atrocities, was one of the accused. The spectacle of him playing both investigator and defendant, one minute claiming innocence, the next defending a bloody legacy, rendered any pretense of impartiality absurd.

Duterte’s selective attendance only underscored the travesty. Declining an invitation to the House’s Quad Comm hearing, where he faced no guaranteed protection, he excused himself on the grounds of age and health, though he was evidently well enough for the Senate session. He opted for the Senate Blue Ribbon hearing, shielded by allies who fiercely defended him while tearing down other resource persons. Had he any genuine courage, Duterte would have stood before the Quad Comm, a body committed to exposing the truth with unflinching resolve and whose members have sacrificed their blood, sweat and tears in the conduct of the investigation.


Tags: BABY GARCIA-CUEVAS

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