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News > World

Philippine Hitman Says Duterte Ordered Death Squad Killings

  • Edgar Matobato, speaks during a senate hearing on drug-related extrajudicial killings, in Pasay city, Metro Manila, Philippines, September 15, 2016.

    Edgar Matobato, speaks during a senate hearing on drug-related extrajudicial killings, in Pasay city, Metro Manila, Philippines, September 15, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 15 September 2016
Opinion

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been accused of ordering killings of criminal and political rivals and personally “finishing off” an agent.

A self-confessed hitman and former member of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Davao death squad,” which allegedly operated as he was was mayor of the Fillipino city, testified in a senate hearing Thursday that he participated in the murder of more than 50 people under instruction from Duterte.

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Edgar Matobato, 57, said that he had been personally given orders from Duterte while he was mayor of Davao to carry out extrajudicial killings and assassinations. “Our job was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers.”

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

Matobato said that for more than 20 years, Duterte ordered the deaths of nearly 1,000 criminal and political rivals, even claiming that Duterte “finished off” a justice department agent with an Uzi submachine gun.

While he was being questioned, Matobato held up a roll of tape which he said that the used to kill his victims. He also detailed murders ordered by Duterte where bodies were chopped up, buried in mass graves, thrown into the sea and fed to a crocodile.

Since coming into power in June on a populist anti-crime platform, Duterte has alarmed human rights groups and the international community in his merciless “war on drugs” targeting both the illegal drug trade and users.

In less than three months, as many as 3,000 people are estimated to have been killed as as result of the heavy-handed approach, earning Duterte names such as “Duterte Harry” and “The Punisher.” As well as police operations, many have been the victims of extra-judicial killings from unknown assailants.

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Matobato claimed that Duterte ordered the killing of Muslims, including bombing a mosque in retataliaton for an attack on a cathedral in 1993.

He also claimed that Duterte’s son Paolo Duterte, the current Davao vice mayor, was also responsible for ordering killings. Rights groups claim that there were around 1,400 suspicious killings in Davao city during Duterte’s reign.

Duterte, supported by Fillipino authorities, have insisted on the president's innocence, discrediting Matobato's accusations as fabrications saying his testimony is part of a political plot against the Philippine president.

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