Matobato indicted for slay try on agrarian reform officer

Edgar Matobato (INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO / KRISTINE ANGELI SABILLO)

Confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) member Edgar Matobato has been indicted for frustrated murder in connection with the botched assassination of an agrarian reform officer in Digos City in 2014.

In a three-page resolution dated Nov. 24, 2016, Digos Assistant City Prosecutor Suzette Dalumpines found probable cause to pursue the criminal case against Matobato and fellow respondent, lawyer Norberto Sinsona, based on a complaint brought by Abeto Salcedo Jr.

In her resolution, a copy of which was provided to the media by the Department of Justice on Thursday, Dalumpines approved the indictment of Matobato and Sinsona after both failed to answer Salcedo’s accusations.

The case against Matobato came a few days after his interview with the Inquirer.net, in which he recalled witnessing President Rodrigo Duterte kill at least eight times, reignited calls for authorities to look into the summary executions allegedly committed by Mr. Duterte when he was still the mayor of Davao City.

In his testimony in the Senate, the confessed hired killer named the President as the founder of the dreaded DDS, a group of vigilantes who executed petty criminals in Davao.

Salcedo, a retired adjudicator of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Southern Mindanao, identified Matobato as the one who shot him on Oct. 23, 2014, as he was stepping out of the DAR regional office in Digos.

He claimed the attempt on his life stemmed from the land dispute cases previously handled by Sinsona, also a former DAR adjudicator who supposedly threatened him.

“Despite ample time accorded to respondents to controvert the charge, both failed to timely submit their counter-affidavits,” read a portion of resolution.

“As culled from the records, this office finds probable cause to indict the respondents for frustrated murder via conspiracy,” it added.  SFM