Others were buried at a quarry owned by another member of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), which was made up of policemen and ex-communist rebels.
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Government officials have forcefully rejected the allegations, with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre calling the man’s testimony “lies, fabrications and a product of a fertile and a coached imagination”, Reuters reports.
Human Rights Watch urged the Philippine government to order an independent investigation into the “very serious allegations” of direct involvement by Duterte “in extrajudicial killings”.
Senator Leila de Lima, Chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, on Friday withdrew her request asking Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III to approve the committee’s recommendation to grant alleged ex-Davao Death Squad (DDS) hitman Edgar Matobato with Senate protective custody.
“He (Mr Duterte) emptied two Uzi magazines on him”.
Local and global human rights groups have previously accused Mr Duterte of being complicit in the death squad murders of hundreds of people.
Matobato said the victims in Davao allegedly ranged from petty criminals to people associated with Duterte’s political opponents, and included a wealthy businessman who was killed in central Cebu province allegedly because of a feud with Duterte’s son over a woman.
Mr Matobato said under oath that the killings went on from 1988, when Mr Duterte first became Davao city mayor, until 2013. That’s what we did.
The man testifying Thursday, Edgar Matobato, says he was a member of a death squad and that he killed about 50 people.
He said they also killed Duterte family foes and an “international terrorist”.
The HRW in 2009 said there were 124 targeted killings in Davao City from 1998 to 2008 alone.
In this group, 5067 P1 teachers in Job Group G will be promoted to Group H.
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. In one incident, he said that he stabbed one of the accused criminal, and pushed him out into the sea.
During this year’s campaign Duterte did not shy away from his “death squad” moniker, promising he would kill 100,000 criminals in six months.
“What De Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations in the absence of proof: They are mere hearsay”, said Davao’s Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, the president’s son who was also implicated in Matobato’s testimony, according toAl Jazeera.
“The Commission on Human Rights already conducted an investigation years ago, when the president was still a mayor, and charges were not filed, they did not see any direct evidence”, Duterte’s spokesman Martin Andanar said Thursday.
The comments came after the USA and United Nations expressed concern about reported extrajudicial killings taking place in the Philippines under a campaign against illegal drugs that has seen the killing of more than 3,000 suspects in less than three months.
Adams added: “President Duterte can’t be expected to investigate himself, so it is crucial that the United Nations is called to lead such an effort”.
“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. “For me, we can just take this with a grain of salt”, she said.
Duterte has denied any connection to vigilantism-both as mayor and as president.
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“Whatever testimonies, statements that the chairperson (of the Senate committee) are saying, we will have to have a proper investigation regarding that”.
