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 global human rights groups have repeatedly criticized his record.
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Numerous others were garroted, burned, quartered and then buried at a quarry owned by a police officer who was a member of the death squad.
Edgar Matobato, who claims to have been a member of the infamous “Davao Death Squad (DDS)”, was presented by de Lima at the Senate and he told the house he heard Duterte order some of the killings himself.
Even if he is found liable for the killings, Mr Duterte enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution because he is President.
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.
Rodrigo Duterte has frequently denied involvement in any vigilantism as both mayor and president.
Pimentel pointed out the Senate approved the resolution empowering the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights chaired by Senator Leila de Lima to conduct an investigation “in aid of legislation” of the alleged rampant human rights violations.
For starters, Matobato claimed that in 1993, Duterte, who was then mayor of Davao City ordered them to bomb a mosque as retaliation against the bombing of the Davao Cathedral Church that same year.
“Mayor Duterte was the one who finished him off”, Mr Matobato said under oath, according to a translation from AFP.
“He ordered us to kill Muslims”, Matobato said.
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.
Matobato had claimed that the group killed about 1,000 people from 1988 to 2013, mostly suspected criminals, upon orders of Duterte.
“We were tasked to kill criminals like drug dealers, rapists, [purse] snatchers”. That’s what we did.
During the same hearing on Thursday, Ronald Bato, the Philippine police chief, told senators that as of Thursday, at least 1,506 people had been killed in police operations against illegal drugs, while there were 2,035 murders by unknown asssailants that are under investigation.
Duterte photographed with soldiers during his visit to the Philippine Army headquarters.
He said they were taken to the Island Garden City at Samal, where they were killed.
Malacañang on Thursday said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) already investigated then Mayor Duterte and filed no charges against him.
Since taking office on June 30, Mr Duterte’s shoot-on-sight “war on drugs” has left more than 3400 Filipinos dead, an average of 47 per day.
Rights groups have long accused him of being complicit in hundreds of extrajudicial killings in Davao.
“The officers told us ordinary killings won’t do”.
Paolo Duterte responded in a statement, saying “What de Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations in the absence of proof”.
“Then we’d remove their clothes, burn the bodies and chop them up”, Mr Matobato said, adding that he had personally killed “about 50” of the victims.
Victims would be shot or strangled he said, with some disembowelled and dumped into the sea so fish could eat them.
“I don’t think he’s capable of giving a directive like that”.
Paolo Duterte, the president’s son, called the testimony a “mere hearsay of a madman”. She’s joined by several global organizations, including the United Nations and human rights watchdogs, in criticizing the wave of extrajudicial killings.
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During his testimony, Matobato named Duterte as responsible for numerous killings in Davao City when the latter was still mayor.
