Senators beat down probe of Duterte

SENATORS on Monday successfully kept the Senate blue ribbon committee from investigating President Duterte for his alleged involvement in the death squad that killed 1,000 criminals during his stint as mayor of Davao City.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III asked the lawmakers to vote on the motion of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to have his privilege speech referred to the blue ribbon committee.

Trillanes delivered a speech on Monday where he stood by the credibility of confessed hit man Edgar Matobato after his colleagues questioned the “inconsistent” statements made by the witness on his second appearance before the justice and human rights committee last week.

“Now that we have seen the different corroborating evidence on the testimony of Matobato, we are faced with a frightening prospect. That of having a mass murderer as President of the country,” Trillanes told the senators.

Trillanes’ move

“I now move that this privilege speech be referred to the committee on accountability of public officers and investigations so that an inquiry be conducted to look into the alleged direct involvement of then mayor and now President Duterte and other public officials in the killing of more than a thousand persons in Davao City through the so-called DDS (Davao Death Squad). I so move Mr. President,” Trillanes said.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano stood up to object to Trillanes’ calling the President a mass murderer.

For Hitler, Stalin

Sen. Richard Gordon, who chairs the justice committee, said the term mass murderer was reserved for the likes of German dictator Adolf Hitler and Russian leader Josef Stalin.

Cayetano and Trillanes engaged in a heated discussion, with the former insisting that Matobato’s testimony was hearsay and the latter should have raised his assessment of the witness at the committee hearing or to the media and not on the Senate floor.

Trillanes insisted that Matobato had “merited a deeper look” by the Senate.

Gordon said Trillanes’ statements were a “slur on the committee” as these questioned the committee “members’ appreciation of evidence in the matter.”

He asked Pimentel to direct that Trillanes’ speech be referred to the committee on rules.

Responding to Cayetano and Gordon, Trillanes extended his apology if his use of certain words offended them.

As Pimentel sought to vote on Trillanes’ motion, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III moved to have Trillanes’ speech referred to the rules committee but the Senate President said the motion must be amended first. Sotto then called for a suspension of the session.

After a few minutes, the session resumed with Trillanes accepting Sotto’s amendment of his motion before his speech was referred to the rules committee.

Meanwhile, the Davao City Hall refused to comment on the alleged employment of Matobato with the heinous crime division of the City Mayor’s Office, but said earlier it will submit to the Senate committee investigating the case any necessary document after checking all its records.

Fact-checked

Trillanes, who fact-checked Matobato’s claims before the Senate inquiry to prove that he was telling the truth, had presented several documents showing the witness’ employment by the heinous crimes division under the City Mayor’s Office.

He also showed Matobato’s .45-cal. pistol permit to purchase transferred to him from Arthur Lascanas and noted the address used was the city mayor’s Office.

Among the facts checked by Trillanes included documents like ID card, payroll and job orders showing Matobato was indeed an employee of the Davao City government until 2013 and assigned to the heinous crimes section, as he had claimed.

Trillanes also checked some of the statements made by Matobato, including the fact that he knew businessman Richard King because of a woman. He also showed a video where Mr. Duterte said King’s killing may have been because of a love triangle.

Trillanes said even Police Director Ronald dela Rosa earlier confirmed he had heard of Matobato as a hit man in Davao.