QuadCom cites Napolcom's Leonardo in contempt for 'lying'

House lawmakers on Friday cited National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo in contempt and ordered him detained for allegedly lying during the continuation of the hearing on drug war deaths.

Leonardo was ordered detained at the premises of the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City over his statements denying that a meeting took place ahead of the killing of three Chinese drug convicts at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in August 2016.

The meeting supposedly took place at the Davao City Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) office and attended by then-Davao Prison and Penal Farm chief Gerardo Padilla and retired police colonel Royina Garma.

It was Abang Lingkod party-list Representative Stephen Paduano, chair of the House Committee on Public Accounts, who made the motion to cite Leonardo in contempt. Antipolo Representative Romeo Acop seconded the motion.

Surigao del Norte Representative Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, approved the motion.

Padilla said in an earlier hearing that Garma and Leonardo informed him about the kill job on the three Chinese convicts during the said CIDG meeting. Garma was appointed general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office during the time of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

But according to Leonardo on Friday, no such meeting took place.

"No meeting happen[ed]," Leonardo said when pressed by Paduano regarding the meeting. 

The House Committee on Public Accounts and three other panels, collectively known as the QuadCom, are jointly investigating deaths being linked to the Duterte administration's war on drugs. —KBK, GMA Integrated News