National Former 'DDS member' links Duterte, son Paolo to more than 1,000 murders

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MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 4 - 12:28 p.m.) A self-confessed member of the so-called “Davao Death Squad” recited Thursday a litany of more than a thousand murders over than three decades, including retaliatory bombings of mosques in Davao City, he claimed were carried out on orders of then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his son Paolo, the incumbent vice mayor.

Edgar Matubato, 57, said he appeared at the Senate inquiry into the extrajudicial killings that have accompanied the Duterte administration’s war on drugs because “I want to give justice for my crimes and to those who we, I, killed.”

He estimated having killed up to 50 persons personally between 1988 to 2013, and described several of these in detail.

The motives for the killings, he said, ranged from getting rid of alleged criminals to personal grudges.

Among the many murders he claimed were ordered by Duterte, who went by the code name "Charlie Mike," was the ambush of broadcaster Jun Pala, a former bosom friend turned fierce critics of the then Davao mayor who was ambushed in September 2006.

He also accused Paolo Duterte of ordering the 2014 murder of Cebu hotelier Richard King, supposedly because of rivalry over a woman. The two gunmen were also later killed, again supposedly on Paolo Duterte's orders.

A police officer, Superintendent Leonardo Felonia, former head of the regional intelligence unit, has been charged for the King murder.

Government broadcaster PTV-4 tweeted what it said was Vice Mayor Duterte's reaction to the revelations: "What De Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations and in the absence of proof are mere hearsay. I will not dignify the accusations of a madman."



Matubato also hinted that now Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, then head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force unit in Davao, knew of the murders because, at one time, the DDS was detailed to his unit.

This was in 2002, he said, they abducted a foreigner and alleged terror suspect named Salim Macdum from Samal Island, taking him to a quarry in Davao City where they stabbed him dead and chopped up his body before burying him.

Matubato said he was a militiaman under the Scout Rangers when he was personally recruited by Duterte in 1988 to join the “Lambada Boys,” a seven-man “liquidation squad” he said was the precursor of the DDS.

The Lambada Boys, he said, was sent out to kill “criminals -- pushers, rapists, snatchers every day.”

"Ang trabaho lang po namin Ma'am, pumatay lang nang pumatay ng tao (Our only job was to kill and kill people)," he told Senator Leila De Lima.

Following the 1993 bombing of Davao’s San Pedro cathedral, in which seven were killed and more than 150 wounded, Matubato said Duterte ordered them to carry out grenade attacks on mosques in the city. He said he personally attacked the mosque in Bangkerohan.

Later, he said, they would abduct Muslim men and murder them.

By this time, Matubato said, their ranks had increased with former communist rebels who had surrendered as well as members of the city police, particularly the “heinous crimes” unit that he said was also known as “pulis ni mayor (the mayor’s police).

Among the policemen Matubato linked to the DDS was Senior Police Officer 4 Arthur Lascanas, who he described as the “team leader” of the death squad and “the most powerful police officer” in Davao because of his ties to Duterte.

Others were Bienvenido Laud, who owns a quarry in Ma-a district where several victims were supposedly taken to be killed and buried, many of them chopped up, a Major Lao, a Major Francia, Lascanas, and Sonny Buenventura, who he described as a security aide of Duterte’s since he was a fiscal.

Both Matubato and De Lima both recalled an incident in 2009, when the senator, then chair of the Commission on Human Rights, conducted hearings on the DDS in Davao City and visited the Laud quarry where they found some human remains.

Matubato said he and several DDS members were ordered, allegedly by Duterte, to ambush De Lima and her party and had positioned themselves on the hilly portion of the quarry. However, the attack was not carried out because De Lima said, "hindi na kami umabot doon (we did not reach that far)."

In the 2010 elections, Matubato said when Prospero Nograles ran for mayor against Duterte, they killed four “bodyguards” of the former speaker, including a former woman barangay chairman. The four, he said, were taken to Samal where they were strangled after which their abdomens were cut open and hollow blocks placed inside their bodies before these were thrown out at sea.

Duterte’s son, Paolo, on the other hand, allegedly ordered at least two hits in 2013, when he was already vice mayor-- one on a man who had angered him by accusing him of acting brave only because of his position, and another man who supposedly cut him at a gasoline station.

Matubato said an elderly woman and another man were also killed in the first hit when they tried to protect the target.

Another hit prompted by personal motives, Matubato claimed, was the 2013 murder of a dance instructor who was allegedly the lover of Duterte’s sister.

Although he said he did not participate in the murder of Pala, Matubato said he was part of “planning” the ambush carried out by two policemen and a number of surrendered rebels. The killing was then made to appear as if Pala, who was an avid supporter of the anti-communist Alsa Masa vigilantes, had been killed by the New People’s Army.

Another victim, an alleged kidnapper seized in Sarangani, was supposedly fed to crocodiles at a breeding farm in Digos, Davao del Sur.</s>A former Filipino militiaman testified before the country's Senate that President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was still a city mayor, ordered him and others to kill criminals and opponents that left about 1,000 dead.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A former Filipino militiaman testified before the country’s Senate on Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was still a city mayor, ordered him and other members of a liquidation squad to kill criminals and opponents in gangland-style assaults that left about 1,000 dead.

Edgar Matobato, 57, told the nationally televised Senate committee hearing that he heard Duterte order some of the killings and acknowledged he himself carried out about 50 of the abductions and deadly assaults, including a man who they fed to a crocodile in 2007 in southern Davao city.

The Senate committee inquiry was being led by Sen. Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign that has left more than 3,000 suspected drug users and dealers dead since he assumed the presidency in June. Duterte has accused de Lima of involvement in illegal drugs, alleging that she used to have a driver who took money from detained drug lords. She has denied the allegations.

The hearing was briefly halted so senators could discuss how to provide security for Matobato because of the explosive nature of his allegations.

“Our job was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers,” Matobato said under oath, adding some of the targets were not criminals but opponents of Duterte and one of his sons in Davao city.

Presidential spokesman Martin Andanar rejected the allegations, saying government investigations into Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao had already gone nowhere because of a lack of real evidence.

There was no immediate reaction from Duterte, who has denied any role in extra-judicial killings when he was the longtime mayor of Davao and after he assumed the presidency in June.

Matobato said the victims in Davao allegedly ranged from petty criminals to people associated with Duterte’s political opponents, and included a wealthy businessman who was killed in central Cebu province because of a feud with Duterte’s son over a woman.

Some of the victims were shot and dumped on Davao streets or buried in three unmarked graves, he said, adding some were disposed of in the sea with their stomachs cut open so they would not float and would be eaten by fish right away.

“They were killed like chickens,” said Matobato, who added he backed away from the killings after feeling guilty and entered a government witness-protection program.

He left the program when Duterte became president, fearing he would be killed.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

© 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.</s>PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has tagged the Alcala clan of Quezon, whose ranks include former President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s Agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala, as among the most influential personalities involved in the illegal drug trade.

Duterte said he was convinced the Alcalas were involved in the illegal drug trade and took advantage of their political connections.

“In Quezon, the Alcalas, publicly I will tell you, that’s true,” Duterte said before Philippine Air Force personnel at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Tuesday evening.

Last month, Cerilo “Athel” Alcala and son Sajid turned themselves in to the police to clear their names after being tagged as Quezon’s top drug suspects in a police watchlist.

Cerilo is the brother of Quezon Rep. Vicente Alcala and of former agriculture chief Proceso Alcala.

On Sunday, Cerilo’s wife Maria Fe and daughter Toni Ann were arrested in a buy-bust in the family’s house in Tayabas.

The President said he won’t let the Alcalas off the hook.

“Let them be, I said, so I can time it well. Because if they find out too soon, we won’t get anything out of them because of their connections: a mayor here, a governor,” Duterte said.

“And to think if I didn’t become President, you would never be able to go after them,” he added. “They are surrounded by bodyguards, police, hoodlums. Even the police are scared.”

Duterte has tagged a number of politicians, including Sen. Leila de Lima and a long list of mayors, governors and congressmen, of being involved in the illegal drug business in the country.

In his speech, Duterte said he will release another “thick” list of alleged drug personalities, which went through “final validation.”

“I have the third round and final round. Validation, it’s being done,” the President said.</s>(CNN) He's caused outrage with inflammatory comments on the rape and murder of an Australian missionary , called US President Obama a " son of a bitch" and told police they can kill drug dealers if they fight back .

Controversial former mayor Rodrigo Duterte was elected as president of the Philippines in a landslide victory on May 6, winning almost twice as much of the vote as his nearest rival.

Since he won, more than 1,900 people have been killed, including 700 during police operations, as part of a vicious drug war being waged on Duterte's behalf on the streets of the Philippines.

But who was the hardline Philippines leader before he became president?

As mayor of Davao City, a metropolis of 1.5 million people on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, Duterte first made his name nationally for his no-nonsense approach to crime.

He advocates a hard-line approach to criminals and claims to have drastically reduced Davao's previously high rates of violent crime.

Duterte himself confirmed the claims during a regular live weekly TV show broadcast locally in the Philippines last year.

"Me? They are saying that I'm part of a death squad? True, that's true," he said in a mix of English and Visayan, a language spoken in southern Philippines, before threatening to kill thousands more criminals and dump them into Manila Bay if he was elected president of the Philippines.

When it comes to women, it's complicated

Duterte came under fire for his flirty behavior on the campaign trail, as well as the large number of women in his life.

He has three children from his first marriage to Elizabeth Zimmerman, a partnership that has since been annulled, and currently has a common-law wife, Cielito Avancena, who is better known as Honeylet. Far from monogamous, he has publicly admitted to having as many as three girlfriends

Duterte's relationships and his public behavior -- he has faced allegations of sexual harassment, after photos of him kissing women seated on his lap during the election campaign started circulating locally -- have led many to question his attitude to women.

"Not ever. I have a mother, I have a daughter, I have a wife. Why would I do it? It's not an object [sic] simply because I am separated from my wife," he said.

Duterte has featured in the Philippines press throughout his political career but made international headlines before the election with comments he made in a YouTube video on the 1989 rape and murder of an Australian missionary.

"I was angry she was raped, yes that was one thing. But she was so beautiful, I think the mayor should have been first. What a waste," he said of the attack, which took place in Davao City.

He has repeatedly refused to apologize for the comments and told the ambassadors of the United States and Australia, two of the Philippines' closest allies, to " shut their mouth " after they criticized his "joke." He has also disowned an apology that was issued on his behalf by his political party.

"We were affected by the traffic. It took us five hours. I asked why, they said it was closed. I asked who is coming. They answered, the Pope. I wanted to call him, "Pope, (swear words), go home. Do not visit us again," he said.</s>Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.</s>(CNN) He's caused outrage with inflammatory comments on the rape and murder of an Australian missionary , called US President Obama a " son of a bitch" and told police they can kill drug dealers if they fight back .

Controversial former mayor Rodrigo Duterte was elected as president of the Philippines in a landslide victory on May 6, winning almost twice as much of the vote as his nearest rival.

Since he won, more than 1,900 people have been killed, including 700 during police operations, as part of a vicious drug war being waged on Duterte's behalf on the streets of the Philippines.

But who was the hardline Philippines leader before he became president?

As mayor of Davao City, a metropolis of 1.5 million people on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, Duterte first made his name nationally for his no-nonsense approach to crime.

He advocates a hard-line approach to criminals and claims to have drastically reduced Davao's previously high rates of violent crime.

Duterte himself confirmed the claims during a regular live weekly TV show broadcast locally in the Philippines last year.

"Me? They are saying that I'm part of a death squad? True, that's true," he said in a mix of English and Visayan, a language spoken in southern Philippines, before threatening to kill thousands more criminals and dump them into Manila Bay if he was elected president of the Philippines.

When it comes to women, it's complicated

Duterte came under fire for his flirty behavior on the campaign trail, as well as the large number of women in his life.

He has three children from his first marriage to Elizabeth Zimmerman, a partnership that has since been annulled, and currently has a common-law wife, Cielito Avancena, who is better known as Honeylet. Far from monogamous, he has publicly admitted to having as many as three girlfriends

Duterte's relationships and his public behavior -- he has faced allegations of sexual harassment, after photos of him kissing women seated on his lap during the election campaign started circulating locally -- have led many to question his attitude to women.

"Not ever. I have a mother, I have a daughter, I have a wife. Why would I do it? It's not an object [sic] simply because I am separated from my wife," he said.

Duterte has featured in the Philippines press throughout his political career but made international headlines before the election with comments he made in a YouTube video on the 1989 rape and murder of an Australian missionary.

"I was angry she was raped, yes that was one thing. But she was so beautiful, I think the mayor should have been first. What a waste," he said of the attack, which took place in Davao City.

He has repeatedly refused to apologize for the comments and told the ambassadors of the United States and Australia, two of the Philippines' closest allies, to " shut their mouth " after they criticized his "joke." He has also disowned an apology that was issued on his behalf by his political party.

"We were affected by the traffic. It took us five hours. I asked why, they said it was closed. I asked who is coming. They answered, the Pope. I wanted to call him, "Pope, (swear words), go home. Do not visit us again," he said.</s>PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has tagged the Alcala clan of Quezon, whose ranks include former President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s Agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala, as among the most influential personalities involved in the illegal drug trade.

Duterte said he was convinced the Alcalas were involved in the illegal drug trade and took advantage of their political connections.

“In Quezon, the Alcalas, publicly I will tell you, that’s true,” Duterte said before Philippine Air Force personnel at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Tuesday evening.

Last month, Cerilo “Athel” Alcala and son Sajid turned themselves in to the police to clear their names after being tagged as Quezon’s top drug suspects in a police watchlist.

Cerilo is the brother of Quezon Rep. Vicente Alcala and of former agriculture chief Proceso Alcala.

On Sunday, Cerilo’s wife Maria Fe and daughter Toni Ann were arrested in a buy-bust in the family’s house in Tayabas.

The President said he won’t let the Alcalas off the hook.

“Let them be, I said, so I can time it well. Because if they find out too soon, we won’t get anything out of them because of their connections: a mayor here, a governor,” Duterte said.

“And to think if I didn’t become President, you would never be able to go after them,” he added. “They are surrounded by bodyguards, police, hoodlums. Even the police are scared.”

Duterte has tagged a number of politicians, including Sen. Leila de Lima and a long list of mayors, governors and congressmen, of being involved in the illegal drug business in the country.

In his speech, Duterte said he will release another “thick” list of alleged drug personalities, which went through “final validation.”

“I have the third round and final round. Validation, it’s being done,” the President said.</s>ANTI-COMMIE. Journalist Jun Pala was known for his anti-Communist stance. Graphic by Nico Villarete

MANILA, Philippines – A key witness during a Senate probe into the rise of killings in the government's war on drugs said on Thursday, September 15, that President Rodrigo Duterte, then mayor of Davao City, ordered the killing of broadcaster Jun Pala in 2003.

Speaking under oath during Thursday's Senate probe, Edgar Matobato said that Duterte, through his supposed "right hand man," a certain Arthur Lascañas, ordered Pala killed because the Davao-based radio commentator had been criticizing Duterte repeatedly.

On September 6, 2003, Pala was gunned down by unknown men on a motorcycle in Davao City. He sustained 9 gunshot wounds, mostly on his chest and head, and was pronounced dead on arrival at the San Pedro Hospital. His murder remains unsolved.

Shortly after he won the May 2016 presidential race, Duterte said in press conference that journalists are legitimate targets of assassination "if you're a son of a bitch."

One of these people "who deserved it," he said then, was broadcaster Jun Pala. (READ: Duterte's 'enemy': Jun Pala) – with reports from Jodesz Gavilan/Rappler.com</s>In an extraordinary hearing in the Philippine Senate, a witness claimed President Rodrigo Duterte paid him to carry out executions that involved, among other things, feeding a body to a crocodile, chopping up corpses and murder by packing tape.

The witness, Edgar Matobato, spoke to Filipino lawmakers at Senate hearings investigating a recent wave of extra-judicial killings that has claimed more than 3,000 lives as part of the president's anti-drug campaign.

Matobato said he spent years working as part of the so-called "Davao Death Squad," a group of killers associated with the president's time as a city mayor.

Matobato's claims, which have not been independently confirmed, linked President Duterte and his son, Paolo Duterte, to a list of crimes worthy of a gangster film.

He said he and fellow assassins referred to then-mayor Duterte using the code name, "Charlie Mike," and he ordered them to kill dozens of people ranging from drug pushers, to the dance-instructor boyfriend of Duterte's sister, to a millionaire hotelier.

"People in Davao City were like chickens - they were being killed without any reason," said Matobato.

The hearing's chair, Senator Leila de Lima, is a longtime critic of Duterte's human rights record. She said she saw the testimony as a step toward truth and justice for victims of the president's alleged purges, past and present. "People deserve to know," she said.

A Duterte ally present at the hearing, Senator Alan Cayetano, dismissed Matobato's sworn testimony as "lies," questioning his credibility and casting the whole process as a politically motivated plot against the president. A spokesman for the president denied the allegation.

The dramatic scene at the Senate on Thursday showed a country divided at home and struggling to keep its balance on the global stage.

Duterte swept to power this spring promising to crackdown on crime, just as he did as the longtime mayor of Davao, where he earned a reputation for strongman tactics and was christened "the death squad mayor" for allegedly overseeing extra-judicial killings.

During this year's campaign Duterte did not shy away from his "death squad" moniker, promising he would kill 100,000 criminals in six months.

"When I become president, I'll order the police and the military to find these people and kill them. The funeral parlors will be packed. . . I'll supply the dead bodies," he said.

Since he took office in July, some 3,000 people have been murdered. Duterte initially seemed to urge the killers on, but has more recently tried to distance himself from extra-judicial killings and summary executions.

The deaths have been condemned by the United Nations and questioned by President Barack Obama. Duterte has shrugged off all criticism, instead railing against U.S. colonialism in the saltiest possible terms.

The president's undiplomatic comments and erratic approach to foreign policy has the U.S. worried.

The Philippines, a onetime U.S. colony, is a close ally of the United States. With China pressing its claims to most of the South China Sea, the U.S. and Philippine sides have for several years been moving toward greater military cooperation.

But Duterte's rise puts that in question. After his profanity-laced comments about Obama at a recent summit, Duterte called for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces from the island of Mindanao. He also announced he will buy weapons from the Chinese.

Duterte has yet to comment on Wednesday's hearing.</s>(CNN) Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte's office has denied accusations that Duterte ordered a militia group to carry out extrajudicial killings while he was mayor of Davao City.

The claims were made by a witness who was testifying Thursday before a Philippines Senate committee set up to probe alleged extrajudicial killings in the three months since Duterte became president.

The man, who identified himself as Edgar Matobato, testified that he was part of the 300-member "Davao Death Squad" (DDS), which he alleges was run on the orders of Duterte.

Matobato testified the DDS killed alleged drug dealers and criminals in the southern city of Davao, on the order of Duterte when he was mayor, between 1988 and 2013. More than 1,000 were killed in Davao City alone, he claimed.

Edgar Matobato answers questions as he testifies before the Philippine Senate in Pasay, south of Manila, Philippines on Thursday Sept. 15, 2016.

When asked by a reporter if he thought Duterte was capable of giving such directive, Martin Andanar said: "The Commission on Human Rights already conducted an investigation years ago, when the President was still a Mayor, and charges were not filed, they did not see any direct evidence."

Last year, Duterte addressed claims he was part of a death squad during a regular live weekly TV show broadcast locally in the Philippines.

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 international human rights groups have repeatedly criticized his record.

Matobato testified the death squad started out as a "liquidation squad" called "Lambada Boys," which he said was formed by Duterte.

"Our work was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers. Those were the people we killed every day," Matobato said.

He said the group grew in 1993 and evolved into the DDS. Its members consisted of former rebels and police.

In his testimony, Matobato went into detail about several cases, including an alleged order by Duterte to "massacre the mosques of Muslims" after the Davao City Cathedral was bombed in 1993.

"A few days later, he ordered that we arrest and kill Muslim suspects, so we were staking out the Muslims," Matobato testified. He added the squad kidnapped and killed the suspects and buried them in a quarry.

When the Philippines Commission of Human Rights launched an investigation into the Davao killings in 2009, Duterte allegedly ordered the DDS to kill the Commission's Chairman Leila de Lima, according to Matobato. But the killing was not carried out.

Matobato also brought up other cases in his testimony, including one in 2010 when he alleged Duterte ordered the killing of his own sister's boyfriend.

Matobato accused Duterte of ordering the DDS to kill a journalist who was critical of him.

And, in his testimony, he implicated Duterte's son Paolo, who is now Vice Mayor of Davao. He told the committee Paolo Duerte also ordered the DDS to kill people, and that Paolo was a drug user.

One of the people Paolo Duterte ordered killed was billionaire Richard King in 2014, with whom he was fighting with over a woman, Matobato said.

"People are like chickens in Davao," Matobato said.

Paolo Duterte posted a response on Facebook saying "What de Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are bare allegations in the absence of proof. They are mere hearsay. I will not dignify with an answer the accusations of a madman."

Witness says he was tortured

Matobao told the committee he quit the death squad in 2013 and was tortured and threatened to keep quiet about the killings.

He said he surrendered to the Philippines Commission of Human Rights and the Department of Justice in 2014 and was in Witness Protection up until earlier this year.

He left Witness Protection before Duterte took the presidency because he feared for his life, he said.

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

Testifying before the Senate committee on August 23, Philippines National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa said that more 700 drug traffickers and users had been killed in police operations since July 1.

He added that the police "follow the rule of law" and that there was no shoot-to-kill order despite the growing toll of bodies piling up in the wake of Duterte's crackdown.

Duterte came into office with huge public support after he vowed to clean up the country of drugs and corruption.
A former militiaman claims while testifying at a hearing by the Philippine Senate that President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte ordered the deaths of criminals and political opponents, allegedly Leila de Lima, critic and journalist Juan Pala, and unidentified Filipino Muslims in 1993, while he was mayor of Davao City. The witness also revealed that Duterte's son Paolo may also have been involved in the murders as an accomplice to his father.