Confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) leader retired SPO3 Arturo Lascañas on Monday said he could remember where they buried an entire family in Laud quarry in Davao City, where the infamous vigilante group was supposedly dumping bodies of its victims.
Speaking during the hearing of the Senate committee on public order, Lascañas was referring to the Patajasa family, who was supposedly ordered killed by then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
READ: Confessed DDS leader: Davao City police killed entire family
Lascañas was responding to the questioning of Sen. Grace Poe, who also pressed the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on why they have not visited or probed the quarry.
The CHR Region 11 Director said they were not part of the team that previously conducted an investigation into the Laud quarry, which was headed by the CHR Central Office under then Commissioner and now Senator Leila de Lima.
“The whole public inquiry is conducted by the CHR Central Office. Our region never conducted any inspection. We never investigated a case or information on victims in the Laud quarry,” the regional director said.
Atty. Arno Sanidad of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) said a search was done into the Laud quarry in 2009, but the owner, identified as one Bienvenido Laud, questioned the issuance of an arrest warrant.
Laud’s lawyer was Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, Sanidad said.
Sanidad said six bones had been recovered from the quarry, some of which, Lascañas said, were thrown into a lake. RAM