“We are (rotting) with so many problem-kidnapping in the south, terrorism drugs, which is really pulling us down and I can say that we would need time to put everything in order”, he said. “These are the kind we killed every day”, the 57-year-old said.
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Representative Edcel Lagman, a human rights lawyer, said Mr Duterte himself should create an “independent fact-finding commission” consisting of retired justices to “determine the identities of the principals and perpetrators, as well as those of the victims”.
Duterte’s spokesman, Martin Andanar, said the allegations had already been investigated without charges being filed‚ while his son‚ Paolo Duterte‚ called the testimony “mere hear say of a madman”.
He said barangay captains “connive and cooperate” with terrorists and drug pushers, which was why he wanted barangay elections to be postponed. “We can not forever be the little brown brothers of America”. We killed people nearly on a daily basis‚”Matobato said”.
“You (have to) manage it correctly”.
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.
“I believe United States is behind all these because they are still there, they are now desperate”, she said. The country’s Chief Justice, Maria Lourdes Sereno, pointed out in an open letter to Duterte that only four of the seven judges named were still on the bench, and that one had died eight years ago.
Lawmakers, though, reacted to Mr Matobato’s revelations with either incredulity or suspicion that there is a larger plot to unseat Mr Duterte.
Little is known about Matobato, whose senate appearance was a hot topic on social media and radio stations on Friday.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III in his explanation said he denied the request of de Lima because “there is no Senate rule to justify it”.
“President Duterte repeatedly urged law enforcement agencies and the public to kill suspected drug traffickers who did not surrender, as well as drug users”, the European Union lawmakers said.
The testimony of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato sheds light on “the similarity of the strategy adopted by the (Davao Death Squad) and that of the vigilantes that now roam the whole country”, Senator Leila de Lima, leading the inquiry, said in a statement.
But she also said “with the new administration, we are now beginning to have meetings and discuss our shared priorities and programs”, referring to the Duterte administration.
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He noted that “700,000 new guys in the drug business” had surrendered to the police and military, and that he had no idea that “hundreds of thousands” of people were in the drug business.
