EX-COP SAYS DUTERTE BEHIND DAVAO KILLINGS
Davao Death Squad behind killing of broadcaster Jun Pala
A retired police officer said Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was Davao City mayor, ordered and paid him and other members of a so-called liquidation squad to kill criminals and opponents, including a kidnapping suspect, his family and a critical radio commentator.
Human rights lawyers who presented Arthur Lascañas at a news conference said his allegations could be grounds for impeaching Duterte.
But Duterte’s camp dismissed Lascañas’ statement as a mere “demolition job.”
“The demolition job against President Duterte continues,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement Monday. “Our people are aware that this character assassination is nothing but vicious politics orchestrated by sectors affected by the reforms initiated by the Duterte administration,” he added.
Duterte has denied his administration backs unlawful killings of
Andanar dismisses allegation as ‘demolition job’ vs. Duterte
suspects under his deadly crackdown against illegal drugs that is feared to have killed more than 7,000 mostly drug users and petty drug pushers since he took office in June.
The killings under the crackdown, an expansion of his anti-drug campaign when he was a longtime mayor of Davao City, have alarmed the United States, other Western governments and the UN rights officials.
In many public speeches, Duterte has told policemen to defend themselves if drug suspects fight back and has openly threatened drug lords and dealers with death.
Lascañas’s comments came after he denied to a Senate hearing last year that he had been involved in any extra-judicial killings in Davao. He testified at the inquiry last October 2016 after he was implicated by another witness, Edgar Matobato, a former militiaman who said Duterte ordered him and others to kill criminals in gangland-style assaults that left hundreds of people dead.
Breaking into tears at one point, Lascañas said during the press conference Monday that he was speaking up because he was bothered by his conscience, including his role in the deaths of his two brothers, whom he ordered killed because they were drug users.
“I had my own two brothers killed. Even if I end up dead, I’m content because I’ve fulfilled my promise to the lord to make a public confession,” he said.