PNP colonel cited in contempt at quad comm hearing

The police colonel who accused two officials of the House of Representatives of allegedly coercing him to testify against former president Rodrigo Duterte's purported state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings (EJKs) was cited in contempt by the quad committee last night.

- By DELON PORCALLA

The motion of Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop to cite Col. Hector Grijaldo in contempt was carried after it was seconded by other members of the special committee.

Grijaldo will be detained at Station 6 of the Quezon City Police District, which is just across the Batasan Pambansa complex.

Lawmakers showed the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage where the police officer – a classmate and close friend of whistleblower and retired colonel Royina Garma – was even "all smiles" during the time that he was "coerced" by Representatives Dan Fernandez of Santa Rosa, Laguna and Bienvenido Abante of Manila's sixth district to corroborate Garma's story.

Acop, a lawyer and retired police general, pointed out that the CCTV indicated there was "no animosity" among Fernandez, Abante and Grijaldo himself, who earned the ire of legislators for repeatedly invoking his right against self-incrimination when there was no incriminating question to begin with.