He added that the police “follow the rule of law” and that there was no shoot-to-kill order despite the growing toll of bodies piling up in the wake of Duterte’s crackdown.
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Justice Secretary Vitalliano Aguirre has branded Matobato’s statement “lies, fabrications” and a product of a “fertile and a coached imagination”.
Senator De Lima, disappointed with Pimentel, was quoted in Inquirer today as saying she will continue to push for protective custody for her witness by withdrawing the request to Senate and submitting it instead to the Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which she chairs.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in May’s elections, accused Matobato of being part of a plot to unseat Duterte.
He also claimed that his group was involved in the killing of a local radio commentator, Jun Pala, who was a critic of Duterte when he was still a mayor. “He emptied two Uzi magazines on him”, Matobato said.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) had previously confirmed the existence of the Davao Death Squad.
But, since assuming office, his approach has sparked controversy, involving vigilantism and extrajudicial killings – he even offered medals to citizens who killed drug dealers. That’s what we did.
He explained: ‘Our job was to kill criminals, rapists, pushers, and snatchers. “What is your definition of a human being?” he told soldiers on a recent visit to an army camp. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t kill them all because the last report would be this thick”.
Duterte’s office denies the claims.
Hundreds of people have died amid President Duterte’s war on drugs and it is likely thousands more will be killed before the campaign ends.
The Senate held a hearing Thursday to investigate extrajudicial killings in the Philippines over the past three months. “I killed people. I want our countrymen to know what we did in Davao”, said Matubato, who also accused Duterte of ordering the bombing of a Davao City mosque in 1993, claiming the former mayor believed it was connected to an explosion at a Catholic cathedral of Davao City earlier that year. She’s joined by several worldwide organizations, including the United Nations and human rights watchdogs, in criticizing the wave of extrajudicial killings. “They are sadists”, he said, describing how the victims were strangled.
She said based on the data presented by Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa during the first Senate inquiry on August 22 there were 712 suspected drug-related individuals killed during police operations since July 1.
Matobato said the victims included political and personal rivals of Duterte and his family, a journalist and at least one government official.
Paolo Duterte, the president’s son, called the testimony a “mere hearsay of a madman”. The UN and rights watchdogs roundly denounced his comments.
She said the hitman’s testimony would be referred to the Philippine Ombudsman, although she acknowledged sitting presidents are immune from prosecution and could only be removed through impeachment.
“In light of the foregoing, the Commission concludes that in the period of 2005-2009, there was a systematic practice of extrajudicial killings, which can be attributed or attributable to a vigilante group or groups dubbed in the media as the Davao Death Squad”, a resolution from CHR stated.
He entered a government witness protection programme after quitting the group but left it after Mr Duterte became President.
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Asked why he left the death squad, he replied: “I am bothered by my conscience”.
