Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has dismissed the claims by Matobato, a self-confessed hitman.
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Leila de Lima has withdrawn her request to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to grant a confessed hitman protective custody and has chose to raise the issue with her committee instead.
Since he took office in June, more than 3,000 suspected drug users and dealers have been killed by security forces and vigilantes, raising worldwide alarm over judicial process.
“These are serious allegations and we take them seriously, we look into them”, said US State department deputy spokesman Mark Toner.
“We’re the ninth safest city – how do you think I did it?”
Critics have long accused Duterte of either permitting or encouraging those extrajudicial killings. He has denied these claims, even while engaging in tough talk in which he stated his approach to criminals was to “kill them all”.
Duterte said at a news conference in the southern city of Davao that he was overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem and may need to extend his self-imposed deadline by another six months to end the scourge.
The new list includes more elected government officials such as village chiefs or “barangay captains”, Duterte said.
In short, the testimony on Thursday is hardly the first allegation tying Duterte to the killings.
Global leaders have also expressed concern, including President Obama, who has urged Duterte to observe the rule of law and human rights.
The agent ran out of bullets and was wounded in a shootout before Rodrigo Duterte, the Davao mayor at the time, showed up armed with a submachine gun, Matobato said.
Phelim Kine, deputy director of the group’s Asia division, said Mr Duterte’s apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings must be challenged.
Matobato told the Senate panel he was one of the hitmen of the Davao Death Squad that was established by Duterte, and their only job was to kill suspected criminals and the personal enemies of the Duterte family. “[A] nd they can target basically anyone”, Papa told Agence France-Presse.
He said some bodies were tossed in the sea, cut up and concealed in a quarry or – in one case – fed to a crocodile, Reuters reports. “He emptied two Uzi [sub machine gun] magazines on him”.
Alan Peter Cayetano accused Mr Matobato of being part of a plot to unseat Duterte.
“I didn’t kill anyone unless ordered by Charlie Mike”, he said, telling the senate it was the death squad’s coded reference to city mayor, referring to then-mayor Duterte.
Prospero Nograles’ son Karlo, a Davao city representative, denied Matobato’s account relating to his father’s bodyguards.
“I will not dignify with an answer the accusations of a madman”.
Duterte himself has not commented on the testimony, the AP says.
Since his election this year more than 3,000 drug users and dealers have been killed amid worldwide alarm over human rights violations.
And Cayetano questioned the intention of Senate Committee on Justice for presenting a witness without proper confirmation.
He responded with a statement: “What de Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations in the absence of proof”. She’s joined by several global organizations, including the United Nations and human rights watchdogs, in criticizing the wave of extrajudicial killings.
He seemingly is working to keep his campaign promise.
“He emphasized his message in his final campaign speech”.
“Forget the laws on human rights”, he said.
“We’ll be tackling this on Monday, but in the meantime we’ll just have to find ways to make sure that our witness will be protected”, Sen. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better get out. Because I’d kill you.
“You can not wage a war without killing”, Duterte said, adding that many drug users were beyond rehabilitation”. Human-rights groups have demanded investigations and global attention to the murders, saying he’s connected to 1,400 killings as mayor of Davao.
Of the 3,000 deaths, 1,490 are under investigation as of September 10 with authorities blaming suspected vigilante groups. She’s 39 years old, and has lived here nearly her entire life.
Duterte, seemingly, is becoming increasingly unsafe. “They have no souls already, two of them don’t have souls, actually they are walking dead already”, she said. Some dealers have already given themselves up, apparently because they fear they will be killed. “Innocent people were being killed”.
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” ‘Everyone knows who the drug dealers are, ‘ she said”.
