Senate Committee Hearing on Extrajudicial Killings

Image by Senate of the Republic of the Philippines 

The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights chaired by Senator Leila de Lima held a hearing on 15 September 2016 to investigate the recent extrajudicial killings and summary executions of suspected criminals.

Matobato as the Surprise Witness

The Justice Committee Chairperson, in an unprecedented move, introduced Edgar Matobato as a witness in order to provide a correlation between the current rising death toll in the country and the events in Davao City in the early to mid 1990s under the leadership of then Mayor now President Duterte.

According to Mr. Matobato, he appeared before the Joint Committee in order to give justice to the people whom he killed and to let the people know what they previously did in Davao City. He testified how he became part of the alleged “Davao Death Squad” (DDS). According to Mr. Matobato, the DDS is comprised of rebel returnees, Davao Policemen from the Heinous Crimes Section, namely: Arthur Lascahas, Samson Buenaventura, Rizalino Aquino, Bienvenido Furog, Rey Capote, Reynante Medina, Donito Ubales, among others. He also testified that the DDS killed several persons under the orders of then Mayor Duterte or his son Paolo Duterte. Among the people he identified as those killed by the DDS are: Sali Makdum, 4 security personnel detailed to then Speaker Prospero Nograles, Jun Barzabal, Jun Porras Pala, and Richard King.

Matobato further testified that he was tortured by Colonel Danao and Arthur Lascahas because he wanted to stop killing as he was getting older. When he was able to escape, he went to the DOJ, met with then DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima, on September 1, 2014 and asked to be placed under the Witness Protection Program (WPP). He voluntarily left the WPP after Duterte won as President for fear of reprisal.

Incident between Senator Trillanes and Senator Cayetano

At a little past 1 p.m., while Senator Cayetano was interpellating witness Edgar Matobato, Senator Trillanes inquired whether Cayetano, a non-member of the Committee, is permitted to have unlimited questioning time taking into consideration that he has been given more than an hour as leeway to ask questions. Senator Trillanes went further and moved to declare Senator Cayetano as out of order for consuming so much time of the committee. When Senator Cayetano attempted to answer. Senator Trillanes yet again made a motion to suspended the proceedings. As there appeared to be tension between the parties. Senator De Lima, suspended the session at 1:20 p.m.

When the hearing resumed at 1:23 p.m., Senator Cayetano raised a point of order and manifested that Senator Trillanes is intimidating him by uttering phrases such as “Hindi kita papopormahin”, “Nabubuo ba ang pangarap mo?” and “You are defending evil,” etc. The situation escalated to the point that Senator Cayetano requested to transfer seats so that Senator Trillanes would stop speaking to him. In order to temper the rising ires of the Senators, then Committee Chairperson, Senator De Lima, proposed that Senator Cayetano move to another line of questioning, which Senator Cayetano obliged. ●