MANILA, Philippines – A former police officer and another still in active service said a feud between prominent politicians may have explained their being linked to extrajudicial killings in Davao City from 1988 to 2013.
Former police officer Enrique delos Reyes Ayao and PO3 Vivencio Jumawan testified yesterday at the resumption of the Senate committee on justice’s inquiry into extrajudicial killings after they were tagged by self-confessed hit man Edgar Matobato as among the killers for then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Matobato earlier alleged that Duterte had ordered the killing of over 1,000 suspected criminals and opponents from 1988 to 2013.
Ayao testified during the hearing that in 2009, he felt that then Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Leila de Lima tried to offer to have a pending case against him dismissed in exchange for testifying against Duterte.
He said he testified during a hearing of the CHR on May 22, 2009 at the Waterfront Hotel in Davao City on what he knew about the extrajudicial killings.
In his testimony, he related that he had a pending administrative case before the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
After he testified in the hearing presided over by De Lima, he said an aide approached him and asked him to stay as the then CHR chair wanted to speak with him.
He claimed that he and De Lima spoke face to face about his case and that she even got his mobile phone number.
Ayao said their conversations continued in subsequent phone calls in the following weeks, and at one point, her aide allegedly asked if he and De Lima could meet in a “discreet place.”
In the end, Ayao said he declined what he believed was an offer, as it might jeopardize his appeal before the Napolcom.
He said he also believed that he was being used in a political feud between Duterte and former Davao City congressman Prospero Nograles.
Jumawan, who had also testified before the CHR hearing, likewise denied being part of the so-called Davao death squad (DDS) and also expressed belief that the accusations against them were connected to politics at that time.
De Lima angrily confronted Ayao and said she had never recalled ever meeting him.
Checking her records, however, she conceded that she indeed conducted a hearing on that date.
‘Noisy’
A “noisy” President Duterte is also to blame for the country’s image problem before the international community, which has called his attention to the spate of killings of suspected drug offenders, Sen. Richard Gordon said yesterday at the hearing.
Gordon made the observation at the resumption of the inquiry of the Senate committee on justice and human rights into alleged extrajudicial killings where retired and active police officers, accused of being members of the DDS, testified.
“The President is noisy, he’s very noisy,” Gordon said in Filipino on the fifth day of hearings of the committee, which he chairs.
“It’s all right that he shows his anger against drugs but he shouldn’t make noises like ‘I will kill you’. That’s why he is falling on his own sword and that’s why the entire country is being blamed about these extrajudicial killings,” he said.
He said Duterte, whom he considers his friend, should order the Philippine National Police (PNP) to act swiftly on cases of extrajudicial killings.
“We have to protect the country from bad statements. The President has the duty to be a statesman,” he said, adding that some groups appear to be intentionally angering Duterte so he would be forced to spew out expletives.
The senator said he believes Duterte’s directive to police officers to kill drug pushers who fight back is actually endangering law enforcers’ lives and contributing to rising deaths.
“The President said that they (drug pushers) should be killed so they are fighting back,” Gordon said.
He added reports by the international media on the extrajudicial killings appear to be overblown.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson warned that Duterte’s apologies for his foul language or controversial remarks were getting to be “tiring” and may soon not be taken seriously anymore.
Lacson was referring to Duterte’s apology for his much-criticized remarks about Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.
“What’s the point of saying sorry when in the next vein, you’ll say something again that you’ll apologize. That should be a lesson. How many times has he said sorry already? I think this should be the last apology, he should just be careful of his remarks,” the senator told reporters.
‘No DDS’
At yesterday’s hearing, 16 retired and active PNP personnel tagged by Matobato as fellow members of the DDS showed up. Two of them denied that such a hit squad exists.
Matobato earlier alleged that Duterte had ordered the killing of over 1,000 suspected criminals and opponents from 1988 to 2013 when he was mayor of Davao City.
He said the cover Duterte used to operate the DDS was the Davao police’s Heinous Crimes Division (HCD).
The 57-year-old witness said one DDS member was SPO3 Arthur Lascañas, who was very close to Duterte.
Lascañas and retired Police Senior Supt. Dioniso Abude in separate testimonies denied the allegations of Matobato.
Abude testified that he only knows Matobato because the witness is a cousin of a fellow police officer.
On Matobato’s claim that he took part in the killing of a certain Sali Makdum in 2002, Abude said he was assigned with the local PNP’s drug enforcement unit at that time.
Abude presented a video of him being cited by an energy drink brand as a model police officer.
Asked whether he has heard of the DDS, he said: “I heard of that, because the media mentions it whenever somebody dies in Davao.”
Lascañas, who was also a member of HCD, testified there was no such thing as the DDS and also denied his involvement in the killings.
He said he only met Matobato in 1996 not in 1998 as Matobato claimed.
“He’s a liar,” Lascañas said.
He said his dealings with Matobato were only on business as both of them were into buying and selling real estate. He said Matobato earned as much as P800,000 in various transactions.
Lascañas testified that Matobato often went around in camouflage military attire, brandishing an M-14 rifle.
He confirmed that Matobato included him and other police officials in his complaint of torture and illegal detention in 2015.
He also denied being close to Duterte as two of his brothers – both policemen – were killed by fellow policemen in an anti-drug operation.
He also said his daughter had tried to apply as a nurse at the Davao City Hall but was turned down and insulted as well. Duterte did not bother to visit him when he was afflicted with a serious kidney ailment.
“My rank and position is low for me to be very close to him (Duterte),” Lascañas said.
De Lima, however, believed the two witnesses were not telling the truth.
She pointed out that Abude and several other high-ranking police officers in Davao City were fined by the Office of the Ombudsman in an amount equivalent to one month’s salary for failing to solve the extrajudicial killings in the city.
Lacson asked Lascañas why Matobato kept on mentioning him and linking him to almost all the killings in Davao City. Lascañas replied he was also wondering and added he has already forgiven Matobato.
He expressed belief Matobato was being used by some groups but declined to elaborate.
Winning the war
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, for his part, told reporters the government is winning the war against illegal drugs.
Dela Rosa said the accomplishments in the campaign against illegal drugs are indicated in statistics in the past three months showing the number of slain, arrested and surrendered drug offenders.
The PNP National Monitoring Center indicated that a total of 1,360 drug personalities were killed while 22,217 others were arrested in 23,367 police operations nationwide from July 1 to Oct. 2.
The PNP said there were 731,839 self-confessed drug pushers and users who surrendered after police conducted 1,575,752 Oplan Tokhang.
Dela Rosa said he is satisfied with the performance of police regional directors nationwide.
“So far I am quite satisfied but I don’t take chances. I want to make sure that I’m really winning so I want them to perform better,” he added.
What genocide?
A threat to kill millions can never be considered genocide.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez pointed this out yesterday as he defended President Duterte from criticism over the latter’s threatening to kill three million drug addicts.
“A threat is just a threat. It may or it may not happen. Nothing happened yet. It is not genocide. Any leader can threaten a criminal, but if the criminals start threatening law-abiding citizens, then it’s an entirely different story,” Alvarez argued.
The leader of the 294-member House of Representatives made the pronouncements in the wake of Duterte’s rejection of his being compared by critics to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who was responsible for the murder of six million Jews.
While Duterte has apologized to the Jewish community for making a reference to the Holocaust in a speech before law enforcers, Alvarez said the media are also to blame for controversies whipped up by the President’s statements.
“With regard to the apology to the Jews, it was not his mistake totally,” Alvarez stressed.
“We all commit mistakes. Nobody is perfect. He may be the President but he is also human. At least he has that courage to apologize,” he said.
The President had also apologized for wrongly including Pangasinan Rep. Amado Espino in the so-called drug matrix.
“We have elected a President and not a diplomat. Diplomacy is a matter of style. Let’s respect that. His priority is our internal problems here at home,” he added. “If you cannot help, the least you can do is to keep quiet.” – Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe
