Did Rodrigo Duterte’s Davao Death Squad make communities safe, as pseudo activist Luz Ilagan once claimed? Like the Duterte Diehard Supporters (of which she is one) and their paid troll battalions, Ilagan of course lied, out of being beholden.
Testimonies taken under oath, however, run counter to Ilagan’s doctrine of sycophancy. Over at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, there may soon be an established legal finding that the Duterte family actually used the Davao Death Squad as its collective private army. Once the trial gets going, the court will investigate the potential ties between the broader Duterte family and the Davao Death Squad.
There are two testimonies in the hands of the prosecution that support this.
The DDS hitman Edgar Matobato narrated:
There was that killing in Deca Homes that Paolo Duterte raised to us only because of an argument. Three were killed including a woman. He kind of abused them and the guy answered him back, something like “You think you are powerful because you are the son of the mayor?”
So Paolo called us, Major Lao, Major Francia to go to Deca Homes. We entered the home of the victim. Paolo ordered us to kill them.
Then there was the fixer of the Land Transportation Office who he ordered killed. We dumped the body in San Rafael Village. Then there was that killing in Ecoland, a man who was only loading gas. He ordered us to kill that man. We picked the man up in Times Beach Resort and we buried the body after.
Matobato would also relate to the ICC how they as death squad hitmen were used by Paolo Duterte to protect his smuggling activities:
Paolo is one of those that control smuggling in the port for the import of used clothing (ukay ukay), rice and crude oil. Tankers and ships that ply the port, that’s their business. Arthur Lascañas and I were tasked to give the bribe money (tong) to the Bureau of Customs. I was tasked to bring the money to Customs, 3 million pesos as bribe money to them.
The DDS team leader Arturo Lascañas corroborates this:
In 2012, City Police Director Ronald dela Rosa summoned me to his private quarters inside Camp Leonar. He told me about Mayor Inday’s tokhang operation to abduct and bury the target. He further asked about the rice and sugar smuggling operations of Paolo Duterte in which I acted as Frontman of Paolo’s smuggling activities. I told Dela Rosa that everything is fine and smooth sailing. And after that, he already dismissed me.
Tell me, DDS readers, who are the criminals in these narratives?
Not only that, these snippets tell us who the accomplices were.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
