Barbers to reveal mystery witness in quad-comm hearing next year

Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILABULLETIN)

The next House quad-comm hearing won’t happen until January next year, but overall chairman Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers is already hyping their next mystery witness.

In an interview Friday, Dec. 13, Barbers revealed that new witness on the topic of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) has signified intent to provide information to the mega panel.

Without sharing specifics, the Mindanao lawmaker said the testimony of the new witness could give more weight to the investigation on POGO.

“Nagusap-usap kasi kami (mga chairmen). Siguro may laman, may bigat, may weight ika nga (We chairmen have talked about it. Maybe you do have substance and weight),” Barbers said, referring to the unnamed witness.

Barbers previously said that the quad-comm was about to conclude its hearings on the POGO issue as the solons have also gathered enough information. The new witness has at the very least made him reconsider this position.

“We may be wrong sa aming assessment kaya nga humingi kami ng tulong sa ating legal team ng House na pag-aralan niyo yan, tignan niyo at sabihan niyo kami kung ano ba yung maaaring maidagdag niya dun sa mga nakuha o nakalap na natin na mga information dun sa usapin ng POGO,” Barbers said.

(We may be wrong with our assessment that we sought help from the House legal team first for it to study and see whether or not the witness can add anything to what we have already gathered on the topic of POGO.)

The big problem about this witness is consistency, or apparently, the lack thereof.

“Ang problema lang medyo pabago-bago…hindi naman namin sila pipilitin gaya ng lagi naming paulit-ulit na sinasabi (The problem is the witness keeps changing…but like we always say, we’re not forcing them to do this.)

“Sa susunod kung wala pa rin siyang ibinigay na impormasyon eh maaaring hindi na namin siya bigyan ng pagkakataon (If by next time the witness still doesn’t give information, then we might not give anymore opportunities),” Barbers noted.

The last quad-comm hearing of the year was held on Thursday, Dec. 12. Congress will go on recess after Dec. 18 and won’t hold sessions until Jan. 13, 2025.

The special four-way panel has also been investigating the issues of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under the previous Duterte administration and illegal drugs.