Duterte has always been accused of being behind the death squad in Davao City, where he served as mayor before winning the presidency earlier this year, but has denied any involvement.
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The recent killings of suspected drug dealers have sparked concerns in the Philippines and among United Nations and USA officials, including President Barack Obama, who have urged Duterte’s government to take steps to rapidly stop the killings and ensure his anti-drug war complies with human rights laws and the rule of law.
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.
“I will not dignify with an answer the accusations of a madman”, Paolo Duterte said, calling the allegations “mere hearsay”.
“Mayor Duterte was the one who finished him off”, Matobato said, saying Duterte emptied two magazines from an Uzi firearm into the man.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre called the allegations “lies and fabrications”, adding Matobato “is obviously not telling the truth”.
The witness said they would sometimes be ordered to kill even non-criminals, citing the killing of bodyguards of then mayoral candidate Prospero Nograles who ran against Duterte in 2010.
Mr Matobato’s testimony fleshed out in gruesome detail for the first time long-running allegations that Mr Duterte was behind the killings of more than a thousand petty criminals, including minors, in Davao, where he was mayor for most of the past two decades.
An admitted former assassin has accused Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of personally ordering extrajudicial killings – and, in one case, pulling the trigger.
In his final campaign rally before being elected President, Mr Duterte vowed that 100,000 criminals would be killed.
Speaking under oath, Mr Matobato said: “Our job was to kill drug pushers, rapists, snatchers”. He added the squad kidnapped and killed the suspects and buried them in a quarry.
The national police said in a statement Thursday that 1,506 people suspected of being drug dealers or users had been killed by police in the campaign since Duterte took office and that 1,571 additional murders over the same period were under investigation.
Matubato said he has killed more or less 50 persons.
Ms Sara Duterte, mayor of Davao and daughter of firebrand leader Mr Rodrigo Duterte, made the remarks as police hunt for the suspects – seen on CCTV wearing face masks – behind a bombing this month that killed 15 in the southern city.
De Lima said protective custody, like the power to cite someone in contempt, is one of the ancillary powers inherent in the Senate committee conducting legislative inquiries.
Online news site Rappler said Mr Duterte once claimed ownership of a vigilante death squad in Davao but now insists there is no evidence linking him to it.
Cayetano said Duterte’s removal would pave the way for the takeover of Vice President Leni Robredo who belongs to the Liberal Party.
Mr Matobato said he backed away from the killings after feeling guilty and entered a government witness-protection programme.
WASHINGTON • The Philippines is firmly committed to its alliance with the United States but will not be lectured on human rights and treated like “little brown brothers”, the country’s Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay has said.
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“This will be a test case”, he said in an e-mail. “So we stayed there waiting for you, but you did not went up and just stayed at the entrance, so we just stayed there and waited”, he said.
