Witness says Philippine president ordered killings

Though the existence of Davao death squads has never actually been proven, the term is familiar in the Philippines and part of the narrative behind Duterte’s meteoric rise to the presidency as a no-nonsense crime buster determined to cure the country’s of its ills.

Trillanes also asked that all other members of the DDS named by Edgar Matubato, including police officers and National Bureau of Investigation agents and officials, be summoned.

He left the protection programme when Mr Duterte became president, fearing he would be killed.

Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Panfilo “Ping” Lacson meanwhile questioned the witness’ credibility since he was not able to name the person who invited him to testify at the Senate.

EDGAR Matobato is now under the personal custody of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV after Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III refused to take Senate custody of the alleged witness who earlier testified that President Rodrigo Duterte was behind the Davao Death Squad (DDS).

The Senate committee inquiry was being led by Sen.

Paolo Duterte issued a statement pouring water on Matobato’s testimony, which he said was “all based on hearsays”.

Numerous victims were abducted by members of the group who introduced themselves as police officers, then taken to a local quarry where they were killed and buried, he added. Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly denied involvement in vigilantism as either mayor or president.

Almost 3,500 alleged drug traffickers and addicts have been killed since he assumed office, some 1,500 in police operations and the rest by vigilante groups, according to the police. “These are the kind we killed every day”, the 57-year-old said.

De Lima has yet to say why she did not seek to prosecute Duterte over the Davao killings when she was justice minister in the previous administration when Matobato first came to her for protection. Soon after his election victory this year, Mr. Duterte, remarking on media killings at a news conference, said of Mr. Pala: “I do not want to diminish his memory but he was a rotten son of a bitch”.

Duterte previously said that he always been pointed as the perpetrator of Pala’s murder but insisted that he had nothing to do with it.

‘MADMAN’ The vice-mayor said in response on Thursday: “What de Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations in the absence of proof”.

Matobato said the death squad received orders either directly from Duterte or from active-duty Davao police officers assigned at the mayor’s office.

He later retracted that statement in a press conference, telling reporters there were “no Davao death squads”, but the allegations remain and numerous local and global human rights groups have repeatedly criticized his record.

Matobato’s testimony fleshed out in gruesome detail for the first time long-running allegations Duterte was behind a death squad that killed more than a thousand people in Davao, where he was mayor for most of the past two decades.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he did not believe Rodrigo Duterte was capable of ordering the killings and investigations proved him innocent.

“I will not dignify with an answer the accusations of a madman”.

Duterte shot dead a Justice Department employee and ordered the murder of opponents, Matobato said. He said most of those killed were small time criminals. “I’ll supply the dead bodies”, he said. He said nobody ordered him to pin down the President.

Duterte has come under increasing global criticism for his war on drugs, which as of late August had claimed more than 1,900 lives.