Akbayan to Duterte: Your antics won’t work in Congress

Akbayan Partylist Representative Perci Cendaña brushed aside as empty threats former president Rodrigo Duterte’s intention to intimidate the House Quad Committee members as the body announced that it would continue its hearing on Wednesday. The legislator, who has recently joined the House Committee on Human Rights and by extension the QuadComm, said Duterte’s usual antics would no longer work with the House of Representatives.

“Kung sinubukan niyang lusubin ang Senado, hindi niya ‘yan magagawa sa Kongreso. We’ll make sure to utilize the committee hearing to ferret out the truth,” according to Cerdaña.

“We hope to use his arrogance against him. Sa sobrang lasing niya sa kayabangan sa Senate hearing, hinukay niya ang sarili niyang libingan. His unrestrained display of bravado dug his own political grave,” Cendaña said.

The Akbayan legislator also mentioned that Duterte’s goal in attending the QuadComm aside from drawing cheers from his supporters by intimidating the committees’ members is to also mitigate the explosive confessions he made during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s probe into the Duterte drug war.

“Asahan natin na iga-gaslight tayo o sasabihin niya joke lang ang lahat ng kanyang pag-amin under oath para makaiwas siya sa pananagutan. But guess what? The joke’s on him. Justice is on his heels, and neither his antics nor his arrogance will derail the path toward truth and accountability," Cendaña asserted.

The QuadComm’s resumption of its hearing comes after Duterte Spokesperson Sal Panelo announced Duterte’s intention to join the QuadComm hearing for Wednesday despite its postponement to a later date.