Rodrigo Duterte: I hope QuadComm will ask educated questions

Former president Rodrigo Duterte is ready to face the House of Representatives Quad Committee to face the questions regarding his administration’s controversial war on drugs. 

According to the report of GMA Regional TV’s Rgil Relator in “24 Oras,” Duterte made the statement after he announced his bid for Davao City’s mayoralty. 

“If they will invite me. I  just hope they will ask educated questions,” he added.

He was earlier invited by the House QuadComm after he was linked to the killings of Chinese drug lords in 2016. 

But the committee said that it would respect the former chief executive’s decision should he refuse to attend the probe. 

Duterte on Monday filed his candidacy as Davao City mayor, a post he held for over two decades before assuming presidency in 2016. 

Vice President Sara Duterte earlier said that her father and two brothers were now preparing for the senatorial elections in 2025.

Duterte said he had no intention to run for senator.

He also told reporters that he had cancer but did not elaborate.

“I think at my age of 73, mukhang hindi ko na kaya. Let us be realistic about it,” he said. 

(I think at my age of 73, I can’t handle it anymore. Let us be realistic about it.) 

“Do you think I can carry a national campaign at my age or you want me to die? Magko-collapse lang ako niyan (I might just collapse on the ground).”  

His son, incumbent Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, will run for vice mayor. Incumbent Vice Mayor Jay Melchor Quitain will run for councilor.

The former president will face evangelist Bishop Rodolfo Cubos in Davao City’s mayoral race. 

“Ang advantage ko dito yung mga tao ang nagsasalita… wala akong against kay Tatay Digong,” said Cubos. 

(I think my advantage is that the people are speaking on my behalf…but I don’t have anything against Tatay Digong.) 

“Si Tatay Digong is my Tatay Digong. Kung si Tatay walang problema, ang problema matanda na, mahina na ang katawan, hindi natin mapagkaila ‘yan. Kaya ang iniisip ko, gusto ko ng totoong pagbabago.” 

(Tatay Digong is like a father to me. But we cannot deny that he is already old and weak. So I’m really pushing for real change.)

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, the chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights and one of the chairpersons in the QuadComm, said Duterte "can rest assured that all our questions shall be educated as he hopes." 

"I remember we invited him efore to the Committee on Human Rights but he failed to attend. His positive intention to come if invited is a welcome development. I believe all of us in the QuadComm share the same desire to invite him so he can air his side on the EJK issue," Abante said.

"Being a former president, he will be accorded our full respect and cordiality, and he can rest assured that all our questions shall be educated as he hopes," he added. —Vince Ferreras with a report from Jonathan Andal/NB, GMA Integrated News