DAVAO CITY officials denied the claim of confessed assassin Edgar Matobato that Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte was behind the killing of Cebu businessman Richard King and that four of the security personnel of Duterte’s longtime political rival—former Speaker Prospero Nograles—were killed by the Davao Death Squad (DDS).
President Duterte’s youngest sibling, Jocelyn, also belied Matobato’s claim that the DDS abducted and killed her dance instructor (DI) in 2013.
“What [Sen. Leila] de Lima and this certain Matobato say in public are mere allegations,” said Paolo, who, Matobato claimed, ordered King’s killing after an argument over a woman.
Nograles
“In the absence of proof, they are mere hearsay,” the vice mayor said, “I will not dignify with an answer the accusations of a madman.”
Matobato claimed that Paolo, the President’s eldest son and twice vice mayor of Davao City, appeared to be a drug user.
Former Speaker Nograles also described as a flagrant lie Matobato’s allegations that four of his security personnel were executed by the death squads.
“My former bodyguards were all members of the Marine Corps,” Nograles said. “Not one of them had died and as far as I know, they have all gone back to their mother units.”
Nograles’ son, Rep. Karlo Nograles, also denied Matobato’s claim. “I don’t know what this guy is talking about,” he said.
“From the time I was chief of staff (of my father) to the time I was elected congressman, no supporter of ours or persons under our employ was ever killed due to politics,” Karlo said. “Political differences in our city has always been strictly on the level of difference in policy and style,” he added.
President’s sister
Supt. Antonio Rivera, who was with the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force in 2000, denied knowing Matobato. Rivera is now the Davao City police’s deputy director for administration.
The President’s sister was fuming, saying she did not understand why her name was dragged into the Senate investigation, which she described as full of lies.
“I am a private individual,” Jocelyn told Bombo Radyo Davao.
She called Matobato a liar. “I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me.”
Matobato claimed that Jocelyn’s dance instructor was abducted and killed in 2013 by the DDS at Ma-a quarry in the city.
“None of my DIs had been killed. I can present all the DIs I have danced with … I am not denying that I have been dancing for 20 years now. None of them had been killed,” Jocelyn said.
De Lima blamed
She said the allegation that her DI was killed because he was her boyfriend was malicious. “I am not that kind of woman. If we compare [De Lima’s] reputation with mine, excuse me,” she said.
Jocelyn said she was “blaming De Lima for this” because it was impossible that she did not know what the witness was going to say.
“Witnesses cannot just be made to testify if you don’t know what he is going to say. So don’t tell me you did not know and you talk about human rights. Where is mine now?” she asked.
Jocelyn recounted the first time she met De Lima “when she was starting out as head of (the Commission on Human Rights) and she wanted to talk to me about the extrajudicial killings.”
“I am not for extrajudicial killings. That’s true. I remember De Lima saying she was not running for public office and that she was just a human rights advocate. Where is she now?” she asked.
Jocelyn said it was now apparent to her that De Lima had conducted the investigation of the alleged DDS activities and the current investigation of the alleged extrajudicial killings “for political mileage.”
She said she was demanding an apology and that she was mulling the filing of cases in connection with Matobato’s claim. With reports from Nico Alconaba and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao