Death squads have also killed gang members and children in Davao, the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a 2009 report on extrajudicial violence in the Philippines, citing interviews with dozens of the victims’ relatives.
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Duterte himself had on numerous occasions suggested murdering criminals as an effective method to reduce crime rate, which was very high when he became mayor in 1988.
Philippine human rights officials and advocates have previously said potential witnesses refused to testify against Mr Duterte when he was still mayor out of fear of being killed.
This after Pimentel’s office announced that he has denied the informal request of Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV, who himself requested that the witness be placed under legislative immunity in a hearing on Thursday.
The testimony of Matobato, 57, sheds light on “the similarity of the strategy adopted by the (Davao Death Squad) and that of the vigilantes that now roam the whole country”, Sen. They are saying I’m part of a death squad.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked for a six-month extension for his war on drugs, saying there are too many people involved in the narcotics trade and he “cannot kill them all”.
He said the death squad was blocked by the vehicle of an NBI agent and a con- frontation led to a shootout, leaving the agent wounded and out of bullets.
He explained that his only job was to kill criminals, as well as anyone who got in the mayor’s way.
He described in gruesome detail their killing methods.
The self-confessed hitman alleged that in 2007 a suspected kidnapper was fed to crocodiles in the southern province of Davao del Sur.
He said the group grew in 1993 which at that time was joined by rebel returnees and police.
Duterte is accused of ordering the killings of Muslims, rivals, and criminals during his more than two decades of reign as mayor in Davao City.
While he was being questioned, Matobato held up a roll of tape which he said that the used to kill his victims. But the killing was not carried out.
Dubria called Matobato’s statement “malicious”.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in May’s elections, accused Matobato of being part of a plot to unseat Duterte.
Matobato also said that Duterte’s opponents had been targeted too, including four bodyguards of a local rival for mayor, Prospero Nograles.
“Otherwise there will be no solution but impeachment, people power, things like that”, she told reporters Thursday, asking: “What if we had elected a mass murderer, serial killer or rapist?”
SENATOR Leila de Lima said the refusal of the Senate leadership to grant protective custody to witness Edgar Matobato came to her as a surprise.
“I can’t kill them all”, he added.
He responded with a statement: “What de Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations in the absence of proof”. “I think that is a malicious accusation”. He said that the squad operated with the tacit approval of the Davao police.
He said he surrendered to the Philippines Commission of Human Rights and the Department of Justice in 2014 and was in Witness Protection up until earlier this year.
Duterte has come under increasing worldwide criticism for his war on drugs, which as of late August had claimed more than 1,900 lives.
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De Lima on Wednesday said the number of those killed now reached 3,526, or around 47 people killed daily.
