THE former chief of Davao City’s PNP Heinous Crime Division on Monday denied the existence of the Davao Death Squad, which was blamed for the spate of killings in city when President Rodrigo Duterte was still the city’s mayor.
Testifying before the Senate committee on justice, retired Supt. Dionisio Abude said he had heard about the DDS, but it never existed.
He also debunked reports that the killings perpetrated by DDS, a vigilante group, were sanctioned by Duterte.
“I’ve heard about the term because the media are the ones saying there’s a death squad. When somebody is killed, they point to the supposed death squad,” said Abude who was head of the Heinous Crime Division from January 2003 to March 2006.
After he retired in January 2013, Abude was hired by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as a consultant for the city’s Civil Security Unit.
“DDS never existed,” said Abude, who was among the 21 high-ranking PNP officers who were penalized by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales over the unabated killings attributed to the DDS.
Abude and the other police officers were fined the equivalent of a month’s salary after being found of simple neglect of duty.
The case stemmed from a complaint sent to the Office of the Ombudsman by a person purporting to represent a group named the Davao City Deserves Good Government Movement, claiming that the DDS was responsible for more than 800 unsolved killings.
The same complaint alleged that high-ranking officers of the PNP were directly involved in the murders.
Records showed that from 2005 to 2008, the Davao City police registered an unusually high number of unsolved killings. The perpetrators of these executions were usually two motorcycle-riding gunmen and the killings were most drug-related.
A fact-finding team from the Office of the Ombudsman reported that in four years, there were 720 persons murdered—97 in 2005; 165 in 2006; 199 in 2007; and 259 in 2008. Only 321 of these or less than half of the cases were solved.
The investigators found that “the killings were repeatedly committed within the areas of jurisdiction of respondents’ precincts where they were assigned.”
“From the foregoing figures, it is evident that respondents were remiss in their duty to significantly reduce the number of killings. Also, the same shows that respondents failed to solve a substantial number, if not all, of the killings,” the Ombudsman said.
Abude’s case before the Ombudsman was revealed by Senator Leila de Lima, who grilled the retired police officer after he refuted the testimony of Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed hitman allegedly belonging to the DDS, who said Duterte ordered the killings of suspected criminals and political opponents.
“This is from the website of the Office of the Ombudsman that you along with 20 high-ranking officers were penalized with just a fine, equivalent to one month’s salary because of unabated killings in Davao City. So you confirm that?” asked De Lima.
Abude said he faced charges for physical injury and an administrative case sometime between 2003 and 2006 for command responsibility, after two of his personnel were accused of being involved in drugs.
However, Abude told the Senate panel that all the cases were dismissed.
Matobato had earlier tagged Abude in his testimony as one of those present during a meeting to plot the killing of alleged terrorist Sali Makdum.
Matobato also alleged that Abude was a member of the death squad, an allegation Abude denied.
To prove his “good character,” Abude showed a video of his accomplishments as a police officer for which he has conferred the “Pinoy Hero” award by the energy drink Cobra.
De Lima pressed Abude on the cases that his division handled.
“What kinds of cases were you investigating under the Heinous Crime section? Murder should be heinous crime. There were 720 persons murdered according to Ombudsman in just four years. Did you investigate those?” asked De Lima.
At this point, Abude asked to seek the advice of his lawyer. Shortly afterward, he said that all the cases were “properly investigated” but they remained pending due to a lack of witnesses.
Abude also denied he was present during the planning of the 2002 killing of Sali Makdum.
SPO3 Arthur Lascanas, another policeman tagged by Matobato as a DDS member, also denied involvement in the vigilante group. He said the DDS was just “media hype.”
He also rejected the allegation that he was very close to Duterte, who allegedly gave him kill orders.
When Senator Panfilo Lacson asked why Matobato would tell lies about him, Lascanas said somebody could be behind him, but declined to say who.
Asked by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano what was true in Matobato’s testimony, Lascanas said “it’s only his name.”
Abude and Lascanas denied they were ever instructed by Duterte to carry out any killings. They had never been involved in any extrajudicial killings, they said.