Sen. Risa Hontiveros said Thursday that the Senate Committee of the Whole should oversee the planned probe into the Duterte administration’s violent drug war.
Senator Hontiveros responded to Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s suggestion for his panel to hold the hearings which has been criticized by some because he was one of the primary figures in the controversial anti-narcotic campaign.
“I will propose to the Senate leadership to have a Senate Committee of the Whole where the entire Senate will investigate the war on drugs of the previous administration,” Hontiveros said.
She added that a Committee of the Whole would better encourage victims to testify.
“Because through his Senate Committee of the Whole, I hope that the victim-survivors of the war on drugs will be more assured and more motivated to join and testify. We must hear them so that, we will know the whole truth,” she explained.
Hontiveros stated that the Senate President normally leads a Committee of the Whole and is in charge of granting invitations to resource persons.
Dela Rosa previously described Hontiveros as a “close friend” because he and her late husband, Francisco Baraquel Jr., were mistahs, or batch mates at the Philippine Military Academy.
The Senate’s decision to launch its drug war investigation came after many House Quad Committee exposés implicating former President Rodrigo Duterte, Sen. Bong Go, and Dela Rosa of rewarding drug war executions, which both senators rejected.
Although “official” government data said that 6,181 people were murdered in Duterte’s drug war, various rights groups thought that up to 30,000 people were killed, some of whom were innocent, and that corruption was rampant within security forces who operated with impunity.