Duterte has been dogged by allegations of extrajudicial killings during his 22 years as mayor, and has adopted contradictory stances on them, officially denying involvement while also boasting that he was responsible for “1,700” deaths as opposed to the 700 documented by human-rights groups.
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Lorenzana revealed he was scheduled to meet U.S. officials headed by his American counterpart Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in Honolulu to discuss security issues on Sept.30.
Duterte, 71, has said the row was triggered by State Department criticism of his controversial war on drug crime, which has left about 3,000 people dead since he began his six-year term on June 30.
De Lima has yet to say why she did not seek to prosecute Duterte over the Davao killings when she was justice minister in the previous administration when Matobato first came to her for protection. He said he and others were waiting to ambush de Lima but she did not go to a part of a hilly area – a suspected mass grave – where they were waiting to open fire.
The head of the Commission on Human Rights at the time, Senator Leila de Lima, told the inquiry that Matobato had surrendered to the investigatory body in 2009 and had until recently been in a witness protection scheme. “It’s good that you left”.
MANILA, Philippines-The US-Philippines alliance will “endure and remain strong” because of the two countries’ long-standing relations and US President Barack Obama is “committed to work effectively” with the Philippines to advance the shared interests and concerns of the two countries in his last four months in office, a US official said Wednesday.
“These special forces, they have to go”, Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials.
Edgar Matobato, 57, told the nationally televised Senate committee hearing that he heard Duterte order some of the killings and acknowledged he himself carried out about 50 of the abductions and deadly assaults, including a suspected kidnapper who they fed to a crocodile in 2007 in southern Davao del Sur province.
“Our job was to kill criminals, rapists, pushers, and snatchers”.
Presidential spokesman Martin Andanar rejected the allegations, saying government investigations into Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao had already gone nowhere because of a lack of real evidence and witnesses.
After calling U.S. leader Barack Obama a “son of a whore” last week, Duterte said he was “not a fan” of Washington and had called for the small number of United States military advisers to leave the southern Philippines on Monday.
The second step that Duterte hinted at was the ending of the Phillipino reliance on U.S. weaponry by at least partially shifting the procurement of arms to Russian Federation and China.
Duterte has picked Ramos as his point-man for patching up ties with China, which were tested again last week when the Philippines published images of what it said were new Chinese vessels at the disputed Scarborough Shoal.
Matobato, who said that he was not personally present during the killing, claimed that the Cebu businessman was shot at close range at a McDonald’s restaurant.
Other victims were a suspected foreign terrorist, who Matobato said he strangled then chopped into pieces and buried in a quarry in 2002.
Matobato accused Duterte of ordering the DDS to kill a journalist who was critical of him.
Matobato said that during the 1990s he had overheard Rodrigo Duterte order the bombing of mosques in Davao as retaliation for the attack on a cathedral.
One of the people Paolo Duterte ordered killed was billionaire Richard King in 2014, with whom he was fighting with over a woman, Matobato said.
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Bai Ali Indayla, secretary general of Kawagib Moro Human Rights alliance says they laud President Rodrigo Duterte’s recognition of the historical injustices against the Moro people.
