(Eagle News) — Senator Richard Gordon on Thursday rejected Senator Trillanes IV’s request to summon President Rodrigo Duterte’s son Davao Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and son-in-law Mans Carpio, noting that the information that they were behind the alleged Davao Group was mere “hearsay.”
The information was given by fixer Mark Taguba at a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the P6.4-billion drug shipment that entered the country via Customs express lanes on Thursday.
“Sa akin, hearsay mga narinig ko pero ayoko sabihin na inaayos ko yung ebidensya,” Gordon, Senate blue ribbon committee chair, told reporters.
He noted that Taguba merely said that the so-called Davao Group–or people involved in illegal transactions with corrupt Bureau of Customs personnel—were the Davao vice mayor’s men.
He said what was needed was “direct evidence.”
“The moment (Taguba) says, ‘Ako nakausap ko si Paolo at sinabi ko sa kanya tulungan mo ako’ at sinabi niya, ‘Tutulungan kita, bibigyan kita ng pera,’ swak na yun,” he said.
According to Gordon, his committee would conduct its next hearing on Sept. 25.
He said the hearing would focus on the list of Customs officials who are being bribed by unscrupulous individuals, as disclosed by Senator Panfilo Lacson in a previous privilege speech.