House panel to probe intel funds for drug war killings

A House Quad Committee will investigate the alleged use of intelligence funds from the Office of the President during the previous administration for the war on drugs, examining if these funds were used for supposed rewards for killings.

The probe was prompted by revelations from retired police colonel Royina Garma before the committee, who stated that President Duterte ordered a reward system for killings, patterned after the 'Davao model'.

Garma indicated the rewards ranged from P20,000 to P1 million and implicated several individuals in facilitating these payments.

House public order and safety chairperson Dan Fernandez explained that if the funds originated from Malacañang and were used for police or military operations, they would have come from intelligence funds, noting that the Office of the President's intelligence funds ballooned under Duterte.

The committee plans to compare the timing of releases from the Office of the President's intelligence funds with drug-related killings from 2016 to 2022.

They will also review documents submitted to the Commission on Audit from 2016 to 2022 to trace the allocation and utilization of these intelligence funds.

Panel co-chairperson Robert Ace Barbers mentioned that potential sources of the reward money could include confidential and intelligence funds of the Office of the President, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, or even other fund sources outside government.