There was no immediate reaction from Duterte, who has denied any role in extra-judicial killings when he was the longtime mayor of Davao and after he assumed the presidency in June.
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A self-proclaimed former member of a militia has accused President Rodrigo Duterte of ordering the killing of suspected criminals and the bombing of a mosque. More than 1,000 were killed in Davao City alone, he claimed.
“I don’t think he’s capable of giving a directive like that”, Duterte spokesman Martin Andanar said, adding that the government’s human rights commission investigated the allegations but did not file charges. Critics allege Duterte largely achieved that transformation through aggressive use of extrajudicial “death squads”.
“Me? They are saying that I’m part of a death squad? True, that’s true”, he said in a mix of English and Visayan, a language spoken in southern Philippines, before threatening to kill thousands more criminals and dump them into Manila Bay if he was elected president of the Philippines.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is unconcerned about the comments this week from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that appear to signal a major shift away from the U.S.
The Davao City Police Office (DCPO), meanwhile, denied knowing Matobato and the existence of a death squad in the city. “We killed people nearly on a daily basis”, said Matobato.
He described in gruesome detail their killing methods. As a warning to citizens, bodies of the slain have been left strewn across the streets with signs on them which say, for example, “I’m a pusher”. “He emptied two Uzi magazines on him”, Matobato said. Its members consisted of former rebels and police.
“A few days later, he ordered that we arrest and kill Muslim suspects, so we were staking out the Muslims”, Matobato testified. Most were cut into pieces and buried in a a quarry.
Matobato said he received orders to kill either directly from Duterte or from active-duty Davao police officers assigned to the mayor’s office who were also part of the death squad. But the killing was not carried out.
Matobato’s claims, though, are still subject to further investigation.
Since winning the presidential elections on May 9, Duterte once again called upon the police and civilians to kill drug traffickers and consumers under his anti-drug campaign. She’s joined by several worldwide organizations, including the United Nations and human rights watchdogs, in criticizing the wave of extrajudicial killings.
Mr Matobato said he was also told Mr Paolo Duterte ordered the killing of Mr Richard King, a wealthy businessman, in 2014 because of a feud over a woman. Rodrigo Duterte, the Davao mayor at the time, then arrived on the scene, Matobato said.
Duterte has immunity from lawsuits as a president, but de Lima said that principle may have to be revisited now. They are mere hearsay. “I will not dignify the accusations of a madman with an answer”, he said.
Matobao told the committee he quit the death squad in 2013 and was tortured and threatened to keep quiet about the killings.
Ms De Lima and Philippine human rights officials and advocates have previously said that potential witnesses refused to testify against him when he was still mayor because they were afraid they would be killed.
He told the Senate panel he went from a witness protection programme into hiding when Mr Duterte became president, fearing for his life.
The Philippines president has been accused of encouraging the deaths of more than 2,000 drug-related vigilante killings since he came to power.
The Senate inquiry into extrajudicial killings is ongoing.
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The younger Duterte said he was ready to undergo yet another drug test.
