I have info to back Matobato–Trillanes

Senator Antonio Trillanes. AFP FILE PHOTO

SEN. ANTONIO Trillanes IV yesterday said he would provide documents and other information that would validate some of the testimony of self-confessed hit man Edgar Matobato who in Senate hearings implicated President Duterte in extrajudicial killings in Davao City when he was the mayor.

In a radio interview, Trillanes also derided the attempts of some senators to poke holes in the testimony of Matobato in the hearings being conducted by the Senate committee on justice and human rights into the killing of drug suspects in the government’s ongoing war on drugs.

“While some of my colleagues were focused on finding holes [in Matobato’s testimony], I gathered evidence and information to validate what he was saying,” Trillanes said. He said he will present this information in the Senate “in the coming days.”

Yesterday afternoon, his office announced the senator will deliver a privilege speech on Matobato on the Senate floor today.

Trivial or none at all

Some senators had pounced on Matobato for inconsistent statements he made in two appearances before the Senate committee.

But Trillanes said that if one were to examine the “inconsistencies, this would be either trivial or no inconsistency” at all.

No one has a perfect memory, he said, as he pointed out the 57-year-old Matobato had claimed to have completed only the first grade.

He said the information Matobato had provided was “very simple” and it would be better to focus on the “events and details” he had testified to before the committee.

He also shrugged off Sen. Manny Pacquiao’s conclusion that Matobato was a “coached witness,” asking how a first grader could possibly memorize a long list of names if he did not know the people involved personally.

Matobato is set to testify a third time on Thursday in front of the justice committee. Panel chair Sen. Richard Gordon invited the 23 policemen and others Matobato had named as belonging to the Davao Death Squad.