Witness in Phillipine Senate says President Duterte Paid him to Carry Out Executions and Feed Body to Crocodile

Edgar Matobato, a witness who confessed he was a former hitman takes his oath during the hearing on the extrajudicial killings and summary executions of suspected criminals at the Philippine Senate. (Mark R. Cristino/EPA)

In an extraordinary hearing in the Philippine Senate, a witness claimed Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte paid him to carry out executions that involved feeding a body to a crocodile, chopping up corpses and dumping slashed bodies into the sea.

The witness, Edgar Matobato, 57, spoke to Filipino lawmakers at Senate hearings investigating a recent wave of extra-judicial killings that has claimed more than 3,000 lives as part of the president’s anti-drug campaign.

The dramatic scene at the Senate on Thursday showed a country divided at home and struggling to keep its balance on the global stage.

Duterte swept to power this spring promising to crackdown on crime, just as he did as the longtime mayor of Davao, where he earned a reputation for strongman tactics and was christened “the death squad mayor” by Human Rights Watch for allegedly ordering extra-judicial killings.

The deaths have been condemned by the United Nations and questioned by President Obama, who called off a meeting with Duterte at an Asian summit earlier this month after the Philippine president fired off a slur against Obama. Duterte has shrugged off all criticism, instead railing against U.S. colonialism in the saltiest possible terms and dismissing his enemies as weak.

Matobato said he spent years working as part of the so-called “Davao Death Squad,” a group of killers associated with the president’s time as a city mayor.

Matobato’s claims, which have not been independently confirmed, linked Duterte and his son, Paolo Duterte, to a list of crimes worthy of a gangster film.

He said he and fellow assassins referred to then-mayor Duterte using the code name, “Charlie Mike,” and he ordered them to kill dozens of people ranging from drug pushers, to the dance-instructor boyfriend of Duterte’s sister, to a millionaire hotelier.

They left some bodies on the street or buried them in pits, he said. Other bodies were dumped at sea with their stomachs slashed so they would not float.

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

The hearing’s chairwoman, Sen. Leila de Lima, is a longtime critic of Duterte’s human rights record. She said she saw the testimony as a step toward truth and justice for victims of the president’s alleged purges, past and present.

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SOURCE: Emily Rauhala 
The Washington Post