De Lima – who has been extremely vocal in criticizing Duterte’s controversial war on illegal drugs – has been accused, meanwhile, of collecting money from drug personalities through an alleged lover to support her senatorial bid in last May elections.
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Although President Duterte is yet to comment on the claims, his political allies have dismissed them.
There was no immediate reaction from Duterte, who has denied any role in extra-judicial killings when he was the longtime mayor of Davao and since becoming president.
Edgar Matobato, 57, told the hearing – part of an inquiry being conducted by Sen.
Matobato said he spent years working as part of the so-called “Davao Death Squad”, a group of killers associated with the president’s time as a city mayor. In the 10 weeks since he assumed the presidency, vigilantes have killed almost 2,000 people, leaving cardboard signs by the corpses that label them drug dealers.
After a 1993 bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral, Mr Matobato said Mr Duterte ordered him and his colleagues to launch attacks on mosques in Davao city.
In the same Senate hearing, Philippine police chief Ronald Bato introduced that 3,541 people have been killed in the “shoot-to-kill” drug war during Duterte’s nearly 80 days in office.
The senate leadership turned down a request from Leila de Lima, a senator heading the panel looking into Duterte’s drugs war, for Matobato to be taken into protective custody, saying his testimony was not related to the ongoing drugs crackdown.
Many of them were garroted, burned, quartered and then buried at a quarry owned by a police officer who was a member of the death squad.
Last year, Duterte addressed claims he was part of a death squad during a regular live weekly TV show broadcast locally in the Philippines. Duterte himself has variously denied and confirmed that he was responsible for the squads, and even that he has personally killed criminals.
US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch urged Manila to let United Nations investigators probe the claims.
As a warning to citizens, bodies of the slain have been left strewn across the streets with signs on them which say, for example, “I’m a pusher”.
Matobato said the death squad had tortured him when he asked to leave the group, prompting him to surrender to the justice department’s witness protection programme.
‘I don’t think he’s capable of giving a directive like that, ‘ Duterte spokesman Martin Andanar said.
He later retracted that statement in a press conference, telling reporters there were “no Davao death squads”, but the allegations remain and numerous local and worldwide human rights groups have repeatedly criticized his record.
Mrs De Lima, also a former justice secretary, said Mr Matobato was put under the witness protection program.
In his testimony, Matobato said he was the triggerman of at least 50 of the murders in Davao.
“The Commission on Human Rights already investigated this a long time ago and no charges were filed”, he said.
Panelo also speculated that the testimony of Mr. Motabato could be a “distraction” from the scheduled House investigation on Senator De Lima’s alleged involvement in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) drug trade.
And, in his testimony, he implicated Duterte’s son Paolo, who is now Vice Mayor of Davao.
“We then cornered him, but it was Mayor Duterte who finished him off. Mayor Duterte arrived to kill Amisola”.
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The boyfriend of Duterte’s sister, along with Davao broadcaster and Duterte critic Jun Pala, four bodyguards of a local rival, and two enemies of Duterte’s son Paolo, now Davao vice mayor, were also killed, Matobato added.
