Edgar Matobato. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
DAVAO CITY — The Davao City Hall refused to comment on the alleged employment of self-confessed killer Edgar Matobato with the heinous crime division of the City Mayor’s Office, but said earlier it would defer only to the Senate committee investigating the case.
“We will check all the records for an Edgard Matobato and if we find any document, we will only defer to the Senate committee investigating the case,” the City Information Office said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The office, however, kept mum over the documents verified and put forward by Senator Antonio Trillanes at the Senate inquiry on extrajudicial killings of alleged drug addicts and criminals.
Trillanes, who fact-checked Matobato’s claims before the Senate inquiry to prove that he was telling the truth, had presented several documents showing Matobato’s employment under the heinous crime division under the City Mayor’s Office. He also showed Matobato’s permit to purchase a .45-pistol, which was transferred to him from Arthur Lascana. The address used was “care of the City Mayor’s Office.”
Trillanes said even Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa earlier confirmed he heard the name Matobato as a hitman in Davao.
“He was a hitman, with a licensed firearm, working in an office attached to the city government, under the City Mayor’s Office (CMO), with the police as companions,” Trillanes said. SFM
Davao City Hall. INQUIRER MINDANAO