‘DDS member’ says Duterte ordered slay of Nograles supporters

A confessed member of the Davao Death Squad (DDS) revealed that the group had kidnapped and killed four supporters of former House Speaker Prospero Nograles upon the orders of his bitter political rival President Rodrigo Duterte, then mayor of Davao City.

Edgar Matobato, the witness Senator Leila de Lima presented during the Senate inquiry on the extrajudicial killings on Thursday, claimed that the DDS, composed of police and rebel returnees, brutally killed four persons, including women, in the Island Garden City of Samal, Davao del Norte after kidnapping them in 2010.

“Naglaban sila ni Mayor Duterte kaya hinuli nila at pinakidnap ang mga tao ni Nograles,” Matobato said.

(Mayor Duterte [and Nograles] were rivals, so Duterte had Nograles’ people kidnapped.)

Asked to clarify who the mayor was, he said: “Ang ating mahal na Pangulo ngayon (Our President now).”

“Dinala namin sila sa Island Garden City of Samal… Nilagay sa buhangin at binigti lahat. Biniyak namin ‘yung tiyan tapos ako ang nagkarga ng bangka doon sa laot. Tinapon na namin. Nilagyan ng hollow blocks, tag tatlo isang tao,” he said.

(We bought them to the Island Garden City of Samal… We placed them in the sand and strangled them. We cut the stomachs open and I loaded them onto the boat on the shore. We threw them out. Weighed them down with hollow blocks, three for each person.)

Nograles ran twice and lost to Duterte in the 1992 and 1998 mayoral elections.

In 2010, he again challenged Duterte’s daughter Sara in the mayoralty race and lost.

READ: Nograles to vote for rival Duterte in 2016

Matobato said the members of DDS were working as ghost employees at the Davao City under the “Heinous Crimes Section.”

“Ang trabaho lang namin pumatay ng pumatay ng tao kasama ang mga police at rebel returnees,” he said.

(Our job is to kill people, along with the police and rebel returnees.) CDG

READ: Duterte ordered us to bomb mosque, kill Muslims — ‘DDS’ member