Alleged hitman: Duterte ordered killings

Edgar Matobato, a former militiaman, made the allegations against Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte during a Senate committee hearing on Thursday.

The 57-year-old witness told the inquiry that he and a group of policemen and ex-communist rebels had killed around 1,000 people between 1988 and 2013 on Duterte's orders. Matobato also accused the president of shooting dead a justice department employee in 1993, when he was a city mayor.

"I didn't kill anyone unless ordered by Charlie Mike," he said, adding that the name was code for Duterte, who was often referred to as CM, standing for city mayor.

He said many of the targets were garroted, burned, quartered or disemboweled, and then buried at a quarry. One was allegedly fed alive to a crocodile, while others were dumped at sea with concrete blocks.

"The officers told us ordinary killings won't do," Matobato said under oath, adding that he had personally killed "about 50" people before quitting the hit squad and entering a government witness protection program.

Matobato's grisly testimony is part of a Senate investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings during Duterte's controversial crackdown on drugs, which has left more than 3,000 people dead since he took office in June.

Explosive allegations

Matobato told the nationally televised Senate inquiry the death squad had killed mainly petty criminals and personal enemies of the Duterte family in the southern city of Davao, where Duterte was mayor for much of the past two decades.

"Our job was to kill criminals, rapists, pushers, and snatchers. That's what we did. We killed people almost on a daily basis," he said.

Other victims, he added, included a suspected foreign terrorist, the boyfriend of Duterte's sister, a radio broadcaster critical of Duterte, and two enemies of Duterte's son.

Matobato also described how, in one 1993 mission, Duterte had killed an agent from the justice department's National Bureau of Investigation who had set up a road block.

"Mayor Duterte was the one who finished him off," Matobato said. "Jamisola (the justice department official) was still alive when he (Duterte) arrived. He emptied two Uzi magazines on him."

'Mere hearsay'

The account adds fresh detail to long-running allegations that Duterte ran a hit squad responsible for scores of deaths in Davao. Duterte has repeatedly denied having links to the paramilitary group, despite openly advocating the killing of criminals.

Duterte's spokesman, Martin Andanar, has rejected Matobato's claims, saying he doubts the then-mayor could have ordered the killing of 1,000 people.

"I don't think he's capable of giving a directive like that. The Commission on Human Rights already investigated this a long time ago and no charges were filed," he said.

Duterte's son Paolo, now Davao vice mayor, called the testimony "mere hearsay" of "a madman."

Human rights concerns

The mass killing of suspected drug dealers in recent months has caused alarm in the Philippines, as well as among UN officials and international human rights groups.

Matobato said he left the witness protection scheme and went into hiding when Duterte became president, fearing for his life. He added that he had surfaced now because "I wanted the people to know so the killings will stop."

Senator Leila de Lima, who is leading the Senate inquiry, said all findings would be referred to the Philippine ombudsman.

nm/kms (AFP, AP)