‘All lies,’ says cop tagged as head of DDS on Matobato claims

A DAVAO City policeman alleged to be the head of the so-called Davao Death Squad on Monday denied all the allegations against him by confessed hitman Edgar Matobato of his involvement in the death squad.

SPO3 Arturo Lascañas made the denial at the resumption of the Senate inquiry into alleged extrajudicial killings in the country amid the deadly war on drugs.

Lascanas told the Senate justice and public order committees that DDS does not exist.

President Duterte has been linked to the DDS that was supposedly created to kill criminals in Davao City when he was still mayor.

“All lies,” was the repeated replies Lascanas made on questioning of senators who asked him whether he took part in some of the killings that Matobato claimed; that he was close to Duterte and that the latter ordered him to kill certain people.

Also denying he was a member of the DDS was Senior Supt. Dionisio Abude who said that the heinous crime section of the Davao City police was not engaged in killing people as Matobato had claimed.

Matobato had earlier named 22 policemen and rebel returnees who were members of the DDS under then Mayor Duterte. He implicated Duterte in the killing of more than 1,000 criminals in city when he was mayor.

Lascanas did not deny he knew Matobato, saying they did business together as a side line. He was a real estate broker and sold 5-6 properties in 3 years. He also said he recommended Matobato to become the bodyguard of a newly elected mayor in Samal Island, a job which the latter held for three years.

“There is no DDS, that’s just media hype,” he said, also denying he was part of the “Lambada Boys” as Matobato claimed.

He also said he was not involved in bombing a mosque or abducting and killing Sali Makdum or even killing a man and feeding his remains to crocodiles.

To Sen. Leila de Lima, Lascanas said he did not know why Matobato was lying about his statements against him.

Asked by Sen. Panfilo Lacson what would be the motive of Matobato to tell lies about him, Lascanas said: “Somebody must be behind him.”

“My personal opinion, maybe it’s because of politics…Maybe he wants to destroy President Duterte,” he said of Matobato.

Lascanas also said he was not close to President Duterte, saying if he were he would have been able to help his two brothers who were killed by police in 2011 and 2014 for being involved in drugs.

For his part, Abude said he knew Matobato as he was a relative of a fellow policeman, retired Senior Inspector Eduardo Matobato

Abude denied he was also present during the planning of the 2002 killing of Makdum as Matobato alleged. He said he joined the heinous crime section in 2003.

On De Lima’s questioning, Abude admitted he was among the 21 police officers penalized by the Ombudsman in 2012 for being unable to solve the unabated killings in Davao City being linked to the DDS.

He said cases in his jurisdiction were properly investigated but they were unable to solve them because there were no witnesses.