Garma missed chance to state allegations vs. ex-Pres. Duterte —Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino ''Koko'' Pimentel III on Tuesday cited the significance of the presence of retired police colonel Royina Garma in the Blue Ribbon subcommittee hearing about the Duterte drug war.

The subcommittee on Monday issued a subpoena ordering Garma as well as retired police colonel Edilberto Leonardo, former Customs bureau intelligence officer Jimmy Guban, among others, to attend the next hearing.

''Garma missed her chance to state her allegations right in front of the former President,'' Pimentel told GMA News Online.

''The confrontation between the two is not that important but of course would be dramatic. What is important is for Garma to appear before the subcommittee because, as I’ve said, we will follow the evidence and without Garma’s testimony before us we lose that evidence through personal testimony,'' he added. 

To recall, it was Garma who told the House Quad Committee that Duterte implemented a Davao model of the drug war nationwide which rewards police officers with money for killing drug suspects.

Duterte, however, has since denied Garma’s testimony.

Meanwhile, as regards the remarks made by Duterte during the hearing, Pimentel said ''lawyers should go over everything he said.''

In a separate message to Senate reporters, Pimentel also said Duterte's words will have to be analyzed by lawyer-experts in criminal law as to their overall value as evidence, when asked about the former president's admission that he has a death squad. 

Pimentel said there is no schedule yet when the next hearing will be as he needs to shift attention to the national budget.—AOL, GMA Integrated News