Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed former death squad member, rocked the Philippines Thursday during testimony about some of the things Rodrigo Duterte did before he became president. Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign that has left more than 3,000 suspected drug users and dealers dead since he assumed the presidency in June. She pointed out that President Duterte has, in fact, urged civil rights organizations (NGOs and CSOs) to report any killings which are not in accordance with his pronouncements on the anti-illegal drug campaign.
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As we’ve reported, Davao City was notoriously unsafe, once known as the Philippines’ “murder capital”.
Duterte himself has previously conceded as much.
“We assure our people and allies that Philippine-U.S. defense relations remains rock solid”, the military said in a statement.
Duterte, who has made a series of rhetorical attacks against the US – the Philippines longest-standing military ally – has been forced to retract his statement that the southern Philippines “would never have peace” while allied with Washington.
In short, the testimony on Thursday is hardly the first allegation tying Duterte to the killings. Duterte later expressed regret for the insult.
“They were killed like chickens”, Matobato said of the people he and his group killed. He says the killings ran from 1988 to 2013.
“Our work was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers”.
He’s since clarified that he’s not “cutting alliances”, but expressed a desire for the country to move away from the United States and towards independence.
In an apparent aim to prevent potential damage in relations, Philippine officials said Duterte wanted the Americans out of the south for fear of their safety.
He said the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights had found no evidence of a link between Mr Duterte and the death squad, adding that there were no charges filed during his time as mayor.
Following the 1993 bombing of the Davao Cathedral, Duterte issued the order to kill Muslims by bombing the Bangkerohan Mosque, Matobato said.
Of that allegation, Andanar said, “I don’t think he is capable of giving those orders”.
Matobato’s alleged that a death squad abducted and executed four bodyguards of Prospero Nograles, a rival of Duterte’s.
“I didn’t kill anyone unless ordered by Charlie Mike”, he said, telling Senate it was the death squad’s coded reference to city mayor, referring to then-mayor Duterte.
AN OPPOSITION senator suggested lifting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s immunity from prosecution yesterday in an alleged attempt to oust him. Duterte doesn’t seem to be looking conciliatory now, either, despite the comments from other officials.
Bloomberg reported that Duterte, in a televised speech Tuesday before military officers in Manila, said that two unidentified countries had agreed to give the Philippines a 25-year soft loan to buy military equipment.
The Senate inquiry is led by Sen.
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In a further sign that Duterte is seeking a major foreign policy shift away from the USA, the Philippine president said he was considering buying defense equipment from Russian Federation and China.
