A confessed member of the Davao Death Squad (DDS) yesterday surfaced at the Senate and pinned down President Duterte and his son Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte as allegedly behind some of the most brutal and terrifying killings in Davao City.
Testifying at the resumption of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights’ probe into the extra judicial killings, witness Edgar Matobato, 57, a former member of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU), said the President, who was then Davao City mayor, ordered the bombing of a mosque in 1993 and killing of Muslims he suspected to be behind the bombing of the Davao Cathedral Church also that same year.
Matobato also alleged that the President had once ordered the group to ambush Senator Leila de Lima, then Commission and Human Rights (CHR) chair, when she went to the quarry site owned by ex-policeman Bienvenido Laud in Barangay Ma-a, Davao City to search the area supposedly a mass grave for DDS victims in July, 2009.
THE BATO SPIRIT — The reflection of PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa off a marble post looms like a ghostly presence behind Edgar Matobato, as he testifies at the joint Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings on Thursday. Dela Rosa was seated across from Matobato, who confessed he was a member of the so-called Davao Death Squad.
(Jansen Romero / Manila Bulletin)
“We waited for you Ma’am. When you went inside, we were (already) in ambush position,” Matobato told the senator who is a known staunch critic of Duterte.
“But you did not get inside the office. We were there at the entrance. We were not able to get you. But we’re up there,” the witness further said.
It was De Lima who presented Matobato at the continuation of the hearing of the Senate panel’s probe into the spate of killings in the country.
Matobato said it was the President himself who recruited him to be part of the “Lambada Boys,” which was originally composed of seven members.
“Our job was to kill criminals, like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers. That’s the kind of people that we kill every day,” Matobato told senators.
CREDIBILITY QUESTIONED
But Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson questioned Matobato’s credibility.
During a short break, Lacson told reporters that he could not understand why Matobato could not answer senators when asked to name the person who asked him to face the Senate.
“Why doesn’t he want to reveal who brought him here? In my book, he’s not a credible witness,” Lacson said in a mix of English and Filipino, noting that the witness seemed to be not as involved as he claimed to be.
Malacañang likewise doubted Matobato’s revelation.
“I don’t think the President is capable of doing a directive like that,” Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a Palace press briefing.
Andanar recalled that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) was unable to prove past allegations that Duterte was linked to the notorious vigilante group when he served as mayor of Davao City.
“Di ba inimbestigahan na noon yan ng Commission on Human rights nung sinaunang panahon, nung mayor pa si pangulo. Wala naman charge, wala naman silang nakitang direktang ebidensya [Isn’t it that it not investigated by the Commission on Human Rights before when the President was still mayor? There was no charge, they did not find any direct evidence],” he said.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, a staunch supporter of Duterte, pointed out the importance of examining Matobato’s credibility, especially since anything that could happen to him would immediately be blamed on the President.
PEACEMAKER — Senator Leila de Lima gets in between fellow senators Sonny Trillanes IV (left) and Alan Peter Cayetano (right) who were locked in an argument during Thursday’s Senate hearing. De Lima had a few moments earlier declared Cayetano out of order for ‘imputing bad faith and ill motive’ on the proceedings.
(Jansen Romero / Manila Bulletin)
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II also questioned Matobato’s credibility.
At the hearing, Matobato revealed that the Lambada Boys later became the Davao Death Squad – the group that has long been believed responsible for summary killings in Davao City and which De Lima, also a former Justice secretary, had attempted to uncover during her time in the Aquino administration. Matobato said members of the DDS grew in 1993, its composition mostly rebel returnees and policemen, and former members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“We were ordered by Mayor Duterte to bomb the mosques of the Muslims,” said Matobato, who admitted he was a “ghost employee” at the Davao City Hall for 24 years as part of the Civil Security Unit.
“Because he wanted to take revenge after the bombing of the (Davao) cathedral. We were like terrorists, too, Ma’am. Because killing Muslims was not part of the plot,” he said.
Duterte, however, later on ordered them to arrest and kill the Muslim suspects.
“We waited for the Muslims there, we kidnapped them, killed them. We buried them in a quarry,” the witness added.
Among those who were killed was a certain Salik Makdum, a suspected terrorist, whom he said they abducted from Samal Island in 2002.
Matobato claimed they even presented Makdum to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald dela Rosa, then head of the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) in Davao, but later on killed him and buried him in a quarry owned by a policeman.
Lacson said he tried to search in Google if there was at all a suspected terrorist named Sali Makdum, only to find that there was no information about the person at all.
Dela Rosa, who was present at the hearing, vehemently denied his claims. “I don’t even know him (Matobato). This is the first time I saw him,” the PNP Chief said when asked by Sen. Lacson to verify his statements.
Matobato also said the death squad also acted on Duterte’s orders to kill four supporters of former House Speaker Prospero Nograles, the President’s bitter political rival in Davao.
He said they had the four persons, which included women, kidnapped and brutally killed, in the Island Garden City of Samal, Davao del Norte, after kidnapping them in 2010.
“Naglaban sila ni Mayor Duterte kaya hinuli nila at pinakidnap ang mga tao ni Nograles, (they fought Mayor Duterte, that’s why they had Nograles’ men kidnapped),” Motabato said.
“Dinala namin sila sa Island Garden City of Samal… Nilagay sa buhangin at binigti lahat. Biniyak namin ‘yung tiyan tapos ako ang nagkarga ng bangka doon sa laot. Tinapon na namin. Nilagyan ng hollow blocks, tag tatlo isang tao, (We bought them at the Island Garden City of Samal…we put sand (on them) and strangled them. We opened their stomachs then I rowed the boat together with the bodies and tied hollow blocks, three blocks on each person),” he said.
When asked to clarify who was the mayor responsible for killing Nograles’ followers, Matobato replied: “Ang ating mahal na Pangulo ngayon. (Our President now.)”
However, Rep. Karlo Nograles, Nograles’s son, denied Matobato’s claim.
“I don’t know what this guy is talking about. From the time I was chief of staff to the time I was elected as congressman, no supporter of ours or persons under our employ was ever killed due to politics,” the younger Nograles said.
The President, he alleged, also ordered the killing of radio broadcaster Jun Pala in 2003. Pala has been a vocal critic of the former Davao City mayor and had been relentless in criticizing him in his radio show.
It was recalled, Duterte was criticized for his tirades against corrupt journalists and cited Pala as an example whom he described a “rotten son of a bitch.”
Also upon the alleged orders of Duterte and five other mayors, Matobato said they killed a member of a religious group named Jun Barsabal, for “squatting on lands” and had buried his body also at the Ma-a quarry.
But Davao City Police Office chief Senior Supt. Michael John Dubria denied that there have been bodies found at the quarry in Maa.
Dubria was the police chief of the Talomo precinct, whose area of operation includes the barangay during that time.
Also in 2013, Matobato said Duterte allegedly ordered the killing of a fixer at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and three women whom they abducted from their house. They dumped their bodies on a road in San Rafael village.
Matobato also told senators he worked with NBI director Dante Gierran for 15 years. In a 2007 operation, their target, he said, was fed to a crocodile.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
Not only did the President, but also his son, incumbent Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, was allegedly behind some of the killings of prominent personalities in Davao.
One of these was billionaire businessman Richard King, whom he said was allegedly ordered killed by Paolo in 2014. According to the witness, King and Paolo Duterte fought over a woman.
“Pinatay si Richard King doon sa Davao City. Ang nag-utos niyan si Paolo Duterte ang nag utos-nyan. Ito si Paolo nagra-rival sila ni Richard King sa babae (Richard King was killed in Davao City. It was Paolo Duterte who ordered it. Paolo and Richard King are rivals when it comes to women),” Matobato said adding that two of his companions were paid P500, 000 to kill the businessman.
Aside from King, the witness said the vice mayor also ordered the killing of at least two more people in Davao who riled him. He said they salvaged the person whom Paolo got irked at while at a gasoline station. They killed the other person while the victim was inside the house and gambling.
Asked by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV how well he knows the President’s son, Matobato said they used to escort him when he was still young.
Matobato clarified Paolo was a shabu user but not a pusher. “Umuutos, pumapatay ng tao si Paolo Duterte. Parang sadista na rin sila. Marami na iniutos na pinapatay. Ganyan ‘yan parang sabog (He orders, he kills people, that Paolo Duterte. He has also become a sadist, he ordered a lot of people killed),” he said.
But the vice mayor denied Matobato’s allegations.
“What De Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations in the absence of proof. They are mere hearsay,” Vice Mayor Duterte said.
Trillanes moved to subpoena the vice mayor and all members of the so-called Davao death squad.
CONSCIENCE BOTHERED HIM
Pressed to explain why he decided to come out in the open, Matobato said his conscience had bothered him.
This was after telling Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian that he probably killed around 1,000 individuals since 1988 to 2013.
According to Matobato, he decided to quit the group in September, 2013, when they “hit a woman old enough to be his mother.” He also told the group he is quitting because of his age and the fact he cannot accept some innocent people are also getting killed.
But when he attempted to leave the group, he was later on arrested and was being made to admit killing businessman King. Matobato claimed law enforcers tortured him but was able to escape.
“It was painful to me. I served them well during those years. I was tortured, they wanted to kill me. But I managed to escape with the help of my live-in partner,” he said.
“Walang nag-utos sa akin (No one ordered me),” the witness further said when pressed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s running mate in the 2014 elections to identify who prodded him to testify.
Matobato said he hid in Cebu, Leyte, Samar until he decided to surrender to a provincial CHR office that later advised him to go to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Manila, citing their lack of ability to put him under the Witness Protection Program (WPP). He reached the DOJ in September 2014 with his wife.
He, however, decided to quit the WPP when President Duterte won the presidency. (With reports from Genalyn D. Kabiling, PNA, Yas D. Ocampo, and Jeffrey G. Damicog)