House Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan appealed for state protection to key witnesses in the Quad Committee’s ongoing probe into the web of crimes associated with the war on drugs of the previous administration.
“The appropriate agencies should safeguard resource persons or key witnesses who have offered testimonial evidence to the quad committee and who have clearly exposed themselves and their family members to grave danger,” Libanan said in a statement on Tuesday.
“In fact, the provision of protective services to witnesses might even encourage, if not embolden, other individuals to come forward and cooperate in the investigation,” he pointed out.
Libanan, a lawyer by profession, said witnesses such as retired police colonel Royina Garma and alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa as well as their loved ones are now “extremely vulnerable to potential reprisals,” given their damning testimonies against influential figures in the recent hearings.
Garma testified before the Quad Comm that former President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the adoption of the “Davao Model” in waging the war on drugs, where police officers involved in the extrajudicial killings of suspects received cash rewards.
Espinosa, meanwhile, told lawmakers that he was coerced by former national police chief and now-Senator Ronald dela Rosa to incriminate then-Senator Leila de Lima and businessman Peter Lim in a drug trafficking scandal.
