Matobato: Duterte had direct hand in DDS operations

Edgar Matobato, who claims to be a former leader of the so-called “Davao Death Squad” (DDS), through his lawyer Jude Sabio, has filed on Friday criminal and administrative charges before the Office of the Ombudsman against President Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald dela Rosa and several other personalities for their alleged involvement in more than a thousand murders from 1988 to 2013.

Matobato has been under the custody of Senator Antonio Trillanes since he testified as key witness of Senator Leila de Lima in the Senate Committee on Justice’ investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings.

Aside Duterte and dela Rosa, Matobato also implicates the President's son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo, and 23 other personalities.

Also particularly named in the complaint were Senior Police Officer 3 Arthur Lascanas and SPO4 Bienvenido Laud.   

Matobato's charges against them are the following:

•         Violation of Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) or Murder;

•         Violation of Article 267 of the RPC or Kidnapping;  

•         Violation of Republic Act (RA) 9745 or the Anti-Torture Act;  

•         Violation of Section 6 (a), (f) (h), (i), and (k) of RA 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity. 

 According to Matobato, DDS was organized and led by Duterte and the group had killed “robbers, rapists, and other suspected criminals in Davao.”

He claimed that the hit squad was composed of “policemen and select civilians.”

“Si Mayor Duterte ang pinakamataas at pinaka-lider sa DDS. Ang code name niya sa mga Lambada Boys ay ‘Charlie Mike’ o ‘Harry/Hari’,” Matobato stated in his affidavit.

Matobato claimed Duterte had a direct hand in all the operations of the death squad.

“Gusto kong mabigyan ng hustisya, dahil marami kaming pinatay. May konsensiya pa ako. Hanggang ngayon marami pang pinapatay,” he said.