Tit for tat; Duterte vs De Lima

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

t first glance on television of the Senate investigation Thursday on illegal drugs, I thought to myself, what’s Angel Baybay doing there? Baybay is a journalist and now executive assistant to the provincial governor of Mountain Province.   

I was wrong. kaing ingas na gayam. Both have the same salt and pepper hair, similar haircut and body build. The one doing the talking was Edgar Matobato, 57, who accused President Rodrigo of killing suspected criminals when he was still Davao mayor.   

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Now, pundits are saying it remains to be seen if the country could be in for another major upheaval following the explosive expose of Matobato during the hearing. 

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano questioned the real motive of the Senate justice committee in producing the witness during the hearing headed by Sen. Leila De Lima, Cayetano warned the probe could be a ploy initiated by the Liberal Party to damage the reputation of the President, remove him from power, and install their own president.

“Gusto ko ipakita… na merong posibleng motibo ng paninira sa ating Pangulo dito… I’m asking about you [Sen. De Lima], your motive, and the motive of your party in this hearing… I am testing whether [the witnesses are credible] or is this part of the plan B of the Liberal Party para makuha ang Malacañang at manira lang,” Cayetano said in a press statement.

“Ako po ay naniniwala sa kasabihan sa Bibliya, kung anong itinanim, ‘yun ang aanihin mo. So kailangan, sa committee na ‘to, katotohanan ang itatanim natin, kasi kung kasinungalingan, grabe po ang consequences nito... Ano ba ang importante, ang lumabas ang totoo, or is this just a demolition job being done against President Duterte?”

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Call it tit for tat. But the President earlier accused de Lima of being “immoral” for allegedly being the boyfriend of her driver, a married man and that she was taking money from the drug trade.

Now, De Lima was the one pulling the boogey strings in the senate investigation and having a witness accusing the President of being involved in killings.

But then, Cayetano questioned the Justice committee’s intention for presenting a witness “with no proper corroboration.” He expressed doubt over the accusations made by Matobato, a self-proclaimed member of the suspected Davao Death Squad (DDS) who testified against Duterte before the hearing.

To disprove claims of Duterte’s alleged involvement in the killings in Davao during his term as mayor, Cayetano said the local office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) already denied the existence of the said death squad. This, even as a news report quoted a UN official as saying the CHR may have already been “compromised” on the matter. 

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The commission earlier conducted public hearings in Davao and requested the Ombudsman to investigate murder cases attributed to the DDS. The final disposition approved by the Office of the Ombudsman showed that "no evidence was gathered to support the killings attributed or attributable to the DDS” and that the allegations remain as "chismis and other gossips,” Cayetano said.

He said Matobato’s credibility as a witness needs to be tested further, especially considering his proximity to De Lima, a Liberal Party member.

“Kaya ko nga tine-testing kung totoo sinasabi niyo o hindi… kung drawing ba ito, imbento lang ba ito, at dinala ka dito para pabagsakin ang administrasyon,” he told Matobato, who had been under the Justice Department’s Witness Protection Program (WPP) since 2014, back when De Lima was still DOJ Secretary.

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Cayetano further expressed his frustration over the manner by which the proceedings were being conducted, particularly the committee’s failure to provide senators with a list of  witnesses prior to last Thursday’s hearing.

“Until 4 p.m. Wednesday, humihingi ako ng listahan ng imbitado sa hearing na ‘to. Hindi ako binibigyan ng committee po ninyo. Kahit ang initial list kung sino ang imbitado,” Cayetano said. “I just take exception to the way this [hearing] is being conducted. Because dapat handa at prepared kaming lahat, and factual ang mga lumalabas.” Cayetano also called out the committee for mentioning “misleading data with regards to the number of deaths being linked to the current administration.”

“When the chair gives facts and figures, it should be factual, hindi conclusions. At the start of this hearing, the chair mentioned that there are 3,526 total killed persons on the drug war... But this is wrong, because there are only 1,506 killed resulting from actual police operations. Ang ibang dinagdag dito, ‘yung murder and homicide cases, pareho ang numero nung time ni Pangulong Aquino, na ngayon ay china-charge kay Pangulong Duterte,” he said during his manifestation.

“We are being monitored not only by the local media but also the international media, and they are quoting from this hearing, from the CHR, and from this chair. Pero ‘yung mga numero ay mali at misleading,” he added.

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Matobato, who claimed to be a former death squad member told the Senate Duterte shot dead a justice department employee and ordered the murder of opponents,

The self-described assassin told the hearing that he and a group of policemen and ex-communist rebels killed about 1,000 people over 25 years on Duterte's orders -- one of them fed alive to a crocodile.

Many of the others were garroted, burned, quartered and then buried at a quarry owned by a police officer who was a member of the death squad. Others were dumped at sea to be eaten by fish.

Matobato made the allegations before the Senate, which is investigating alleged extrajudicial killings in Duterte's anti-crime crackdown that police said has left 3,140 people dead in his first 72 days in office.

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The then head of the CHR, Fe Lima, told the inquiry Matobato had surrendered to the investigatory body in 2009 and had until recently been in a witness protection scheme.

Duterte's spokesman said the allegations had already been investigated without charges being filed while his son, Paolo Duterte, called the testimony "mere hearsay" of "a madman".

Matobato said that in 1993, he and other members of the death squad were on a mission when they approached a Davao road blocked by the vehicle of an agent from the justice department's National Bureau of Investigation.

A confrontation led to a shootout that left the agent wounded and out of bullets. Duterte, Davao mayor at the time, then arrived on the scene, Matobato said.

"Mayor Duterte was the one who finished him off. Jamisola (the justice department official) was still alive when he (Duterte) arrived. He emptied two Uzi (submachine gun) magazines on him."

"I didn't kill anyone unless ordered by Charlie Mike," he said, telling the senate it was the death squad's coded reference to Duterte, who was then mayor of the southern city of Davao, using the phonetic alphabet.

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Residents reportedly used to refer to Duterte as CM, standing for city mayor.

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.

"Our job was to kill criminals, rapists, pushers, and snatchers. That's what we did. We killed people almost on a daily basis," said Matobato.

"The people of Davao were being slaughtered like chicken," he said, adding the death squad killed mainly criminal suspects and personal enemies of the Duterte family between 1988 and 2013.

Duterte's spokesman, Martin Andanar, said he doubted that the then mayor could have ordered the killing of 1,000 people.

"I don't think he's capable of giving a directive like that. The Commission on Human Rights already investigated this a long time ago and no charges were filed," he said.

Another spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said the allegations needed to be properly scrutinized.

"Whatever testimonies, statements that the chairperson (of the Senate committee) are saying, we will have to have a proper investigation regarding that."

Duterte, who took office more than two months ago, won May elections in a landslide on a promise to kill thousands of criminals.

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

Many of the 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.

"The officers told us ordinary killings won't do. They are sadists," he said, describing how the victims were strangled.

"Then we'd remove their clothes, burn the bodies and chop them up," Matobato said, adding that he had personally killed "about 50" people.

The bodies of other victims were reportedly disembowelled and dropped at sea, while others were left on Davao streets, their hands made to clutch a handgun, he added.

One of the victims was a foreign man suspected of being an "international terrorist", another was reportedly the boyfriend of Duterte's sister.

One was Davao broadcaster Jun Pala, who constantly criticized Duterte, four were bodyguards of a local rival, while two were enemies of Duterte's son Paolo, who is now Davao vice mayor, Matobato said.

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This, as Vice President Leni Robredo said allegations raised by Matobato are serious.

“We must exhaust all efforts to get to the truth with due regard for our democratic processes and the rule of law,” she said in a press statement.

I enjoin the public to remain vigilant and discerning as the investigation unfolds.

“Related to this ongoing investigation, we are offended by Senator Cayetano’s accusation that the Liberal Party is plotting to oust the President and that I will be the intended beneficiary of this plan,” she said.

“As I have reiterated time and again, it is not good for the country to go through another period of upheaval, where the common Filipino will suffer the most.

In Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, I personally made the assurance that no such plan exists and we continue to support the reforms of this administration.”

The Senate investigation on the killings will resume Tuesday with more witnesses scheduled to testify.