THE Palace on Thursday defended President Rodrigo Duterte against accusations that he was behind vigilante killings in Davao City when he was still mayor there, saying the witness presented at a Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings didn’t have enough evidence to prove his allegations.
“Didn’t the Commission on Human Rights investigate that already when the President was still the mayor of Davao City?” said Communications Secretary Martin Andanar in Filipino. “They didn’t file any charges then, and they didn’t have any direct evidence [linking Duterte to the killings].”
Andanar also accused Senator Leila de Lima, who heads the Senate investigation, of trying to discredit the President, who has accused her taking money from drug lords detained at the national penitentiary.
Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella urged citizens not to believe the “fabrications” against the President during the Senate hearing.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguire II said De Lima merely revived old lies about the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) in a desperate move to divert public attention away from her links to the illegal drug trade.
The Palace statements came after De Lima allowed the testimony of Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed member of the DDS, who tagged Duterte as being behind the killings.
“The statements of Matobato are all lies, fabrications. and have no credibility simply because there is no corroborating evidence. This is what we call lying and a coached witness,” Aguirre said in a telephone interview.
Aguirre said Matobato used to be under the witness protection program of the Justice Department until De Lima left the agency to run for senator.
“If you can recall, De Lima repeatedly said that they had a witness to directly link Duterte to the death squad. But why was he not made public and why was the case not pursued? Because obviously there’s no truth to his claims,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre also questioned why De Lima brought Matobato out at this time when she is facing an investigation on her alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade when she was Justice secretary.
“Why is this being brought out just now when she [De Lima] already had it during the previous administration? Is it because she knows there will be explosive evidence linking her in the New Bilibid Prison drug trade?” he said.
“These are desperate times for De Lima. That’s why she needs desperate solution,” Aguirre added.
Aguirre also questioned De Lima’s claim that Matobato has not yet executed any affidavit on his allegations, saying it would not have been possible for him to be covered by the WPP without a sworn statement to the Justice Department.
Aguirre also noted that De Lima had already pursued allegations against Duterte when she was still chairman of the Commission on Human Rights in 2009, and also when she was Justice secretary under the Aquino administration.
“It’s an old issue that De Lima persistently pursued way back when she was still CHR chair and where the bad blood with President Duterte actually started. There’s really no evidence because if there were any, a case should have been filed in court by this time,” Aguirre said.
“Senator De Lima had six years to file any case she deemed worthy to be filed. The question that begs asking is why pursue this only now when there will be a House of Representatives hearing on [the proliferation of illegal drugs in] the New Bilibid Prison?” he said.
Aguirre recalled he served as a lawyer to a Davao police official, Benjamin Laud, who was accused of being a member of the death squad.
He recalled that several bones were indeed recovered from Laud’s property, but said the CHR did not have evidence to prove that they belonged to victims of the DDS so no case was filed in court at the time.
“They couldn’t even establish if those were bones of human or animals. It was even found that it was actually a gravesite for people killed by Japanese soldiers during their occupation of the country [in World War II],” he said.
Aguirre said he would consider asking the National Bureau of Investigation to look into Matobato’s statements made before the Senate inquiry and also check if he could again qualify for WPP coverage as discussed by senators in the hearing.
Philippine National Police Chief Dir. Gen. Ronald dela Rosa denied knowing Matobato, the star witness during Thursday’s Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings.
Matobato, a self-confessed member of the Davao Death Squad, testified before the Senate committee on justice and human rights that Dela Rosa knew of their activities in Davao City during the time Duterte was the city mayor.
But Dela Rosa said he does not personally know Matobato, but is familiar with his name because he was a known hitman in Davao City.
In his testimony, Matobato said he was attached to the Davao City PNP Heinous Crime Division, whose members were allegedly policemen behind the notorious Davao Death Squad.
Matobato mentioned several personalities including a certain Arthur Lascanas, who was allegedly his immediate superior, a certain Col. Tony Rivera who is currently with PRO 11, and a certain Rey Kapote, as his cohorts in the killing of drug suspects and criminals.
He claimed that his group killed more than 1,000 people from 1988 to 2013. Personally, he said he executed around 50 individuals.
Dela Rosa admitted knowing Rivera, who was his subordinate during his tenure as head of the PAOCTF in Eastern Mindanao, but Dela Rosa denied knowing Arthur Lascanas and Rey Kapote.
Matobato said he and Lascanas, together with other members of the Heinous Crimes unit, were responsible for the abduction and killing of alleged international terrorist Salik Makdum in 2002.
Dela Rosa said that during the time of the alleged incident, he was no longer with the PAOCTF and was assigned to Camp Crame, and does not know of any such operation against an alleged international terrorist. With PNA