DOJ chief ties hearing to House drug probe

“Why only now?”

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday questioned the timing of Sen. Leila de Lima’s presentation of Edgar Matobato, a former militiaman and confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) hit man, at the Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings, and said it was meant to steal the thunder away from an upcoming House probe into the proliferation of drugs inside the national penitentiary.

“Why investigate only now when there (is) a coming House hearing on why drugs proliferated in the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor)? This is a futile attempt to divert the public’s attention (from) the parties responsible for drugs inside (BuCor),” Aguirre said, adding that the former justice secretary had earlier claimed she had a witness who could link Mr. Duterte to some 1,000 DDS killings when he was mayor of the city.

In an interview with reporters, Aguirre said that despite De Lima’s positions as chair of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in 2008 and as secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2010, she had not filed a case against President Duterte for the alleged summary killings.

“Senator De Lima had more than six years to file any case she deems worthy to file. The question that begs asking is why investigate only now,” Aguirre asked.

“She had never come out with a witness even though Matobato was with her all along. Why? Because these are all lies and fabrications. He is what you call a ‘lying coached’ witness,” he added.

In Thursday’s Senate hearing, Matobato said he sought refuge with the CHR in 2014, a month after the murder of billionaire hotelier Richard King.

He said the CHR turned him away, saying it could not give him protection so he applied to be put under the DOJ’s witness protection program (WPP).

The witness said he left the program after  Mr. Duterte won the presidential election in May.

Aguirre, however, said Matobato left the WPP when De Lima resigned her DOJ post to run for the Senate.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures and somebody is really desperate,” Aguirre said, adding that the House probe would reveal De Lima’s motives against Mr. Duterte.

Aguirre said he had personal knowledge of Matobato’s claims, having served as lawyer to the President and Benjamin Laud, the owner of the shooting range in Ma-a District in Davao City when then CHR Chair De Lima ordered the exhumation of the alleged victims of the DDS.

“The bodies did not prove anything. As a matter of fact, there were statements that they were bodies of people who were executed during the Japanese occupation,” Aguirre said.

“They could not even say if the bones were from humans or from animals. Despite that investigation, no case was filed,” he added.

Aguirre said Matobato was “lying” when he said he never executed any affidavit as he could not have been allowed into the WPP without a written testimony.

“So why don’t they want to release it now? For sure, what he said in the Senate (was) nowhere in his affidavit,” he said.

“Where is that affidavit [he executed if he indeed was admitted to WPP]?” he asked.

Mr. Duterte’s former lawyer also questioned why Matobato could not answer simple questions on who his protector was and how he was brought to the Senate for the hearing.

“Something is not right. How can you believe him?” Aguirre asked.

During the hearing, De Lima had asked that such information, which was confidential and could jeopardize the WPP program, be revealed during an executive session.

In May, then Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas said he had checked on the status of the DDS investigation at the National Bureau of Investigation and found “there really (was) nothing there anymore.”

De Lima in recent weeks had been the subject of several investigations by the DOJ, with Aguirre linking her to some “P88 million to as much as a billion” in bank deposits from alleged drug payoffs that were reportedly collected by her former driver and alleged lover.  With a report from Tetch Torres-Tupas, Inquirer.net