he says matter-of-factly.

"I don't care anymore if they want to kill," he says. "What I want to do now is to tell the truth and not to lie anymore."

He wants to atone for the wrongs of his life in the DDS, and as a fervent Catholic, he says that he believes his God will forgive him, such is his genuine remorse.

He wears a sizable wooden cross outside his tight, white polo shirt and he says he is ready to face the judgment -- in this life or the next -- that his past demands.

Edgar Matobato, a devout Catholic, tells CNN he feels God will forgive him for the estimated 50 murders that he says he committed.

For his part, Duterte has dismissed the 57-year-old as a liar and saidhe doesn't remember him, but Matobato tells CNN that he murdered around 50 people in a 24-year career as a hit man as part of the DDS; criminals and political rivals of the then-mayor in his hometown, the largest city in Mindanao in the country's restive south.

Duterte's press secretary, Martin Andanar, says that the DDS is nothing but a myth.

"Everybody talks about the death squad," he tells CNN.

"There is the Philippines National Police. That's the authority. The death squad, the Davao Death Squad that people are talking about -- this is all legend. It's a legend. There is no death squad. There is the police and there is (the) AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines)."

Kidnap, murder

Matobato remembers it differently. Most often the DDS would kidnap their victims, he