Davao hit man flees

SINGAPORE – Retired police officer Arturo Lascañas, the confessed leader of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) who implicated President Duterte in extrajudicial killings during his stint as Davao City mayor, slipped out of the Philippines on Saturday night.

“I have received information that a lawsuit will be filed against me, and some people are looking for me,” Lascañas told the Inquirer.

He decided it was better to leave the country—“for the time being.”

The retired policeman had requested the Philippine Daily Inquirer to initially withhold his whereabouts as a safety precaution, even if the Philippine government  knew where he was because he properly filled out his immigration form.

But after the Bureau of Immigration confirmed that he left for Singapore, Lascañas agreed that the Philippine Daily Inquirer disclose his location.

Just telling the truth

Was he running away from Mr. Duterte?

“I’m not confronting him. I am just telling the truth, the whole truth about the killings in Davao, [and about] my involvement, because I want to have a clean conscience,” Lascañas replied.

His world suddenly shrank in February when he retracted a testimony he gave to a Senate inquiry into extrajudicial killings in the President’s war on drugs last year that the Davao Death Squad and the killings it carried out allegedly on orders from Mayor Duterte were all lies.

Speaking at a news conference in the Senate on Feb. 20, Lascañas confirmed the existence of the DDS, disclosed the killings ordered by Mr. Duterte, and admitted to taking part in many of them, including agreeing to the murder of his two brothers.

His confession corroborated the Senate testimony last year of another confessed DDS hit man, Edgar Matobato, who claimed that Mr. Duterte was the founder and financier of the squad and the brains behind the killings of suspected criminals in the city.

Matobato also admitted to taking part in many of the killings and claimed to have witnessed Mr. Duterte shoot dead a Department of Justice employee with an Uzi submachine gun.

Both Matobato and Lascañas said they saw signatures of the Davao killings in the extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, but the President’s allies in the Senate said they found no evidence of extrajudicial killings in the thousands of deaths in the hands of police and unknown assailants in the antinarcotics crackdown.

Lascañas admitted to lying when he first testified to the Senate inquiry into the extrajudicial killings, saying he did so out of fear for his family’s safety.

Mr. Duterte’s allies have threatened to bring perjury charges against Lascañas, with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II saying he is gathering evidence, including a copy of Lascañas’ affidavit submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman, to back up a case against the former police officer.

Lascañas came forward with help from the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) and with support from opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

He had since been provided safe haven by a number of supporters, some of whom helped him flee the country on Saturday.

Retired SPO3 Arturo Lascañas, the self-confessed Davao hitman who implicated President Duterte in the vigilante group’s grisly killings, waits at the immigration area before his flight out of the Philippines on Apr. 8, 2017. (PHOTO BY NIKKO DIZON / INQUIRER)

Lascañas had said he was ready to testify against Mr. Duterte in the International Criminal Court, which warned administration officials last year that they could be called to account for possible crimes against humanity.

Malacañang has denied the allegations of Lascañas, saying these are part of a plan to “destroy the President and topple his administration.”

For a while on Saturday, Lascañas thought he would not be able to get out.

He waited for around 15 minutes at the airport immigration counter before his passport was stamped.

“They didn’t talk to me. They just told me to take a seat. They didn’t tell me why,” Lascañas said, referring to the immigration officers.

One of them told the Inquirer that they had no reason to stop Lascañas from leaving.

But they said they informed the Bureau of Immigration headquarters that an Arturo Lascañas was at one of the immigration counters at the airport.

“The immigration staff were actually polite and even apologetic,” Lascañas said, adding the immigration officer at the counter took note of his full itinerary.

Through it all, however, he said he was confident that he should be allowed to leave because there was no hold-departure order for him. He said he was not on the immigration watch list.

This Inquirer reporter took the same flight as Lascañas’.

‘I love our country’

On Sunday morning, at a rented place, which for now he would call home, Lascañas looked well rested and relaxed.

With his companions and this Inquirer reporter, Lascañas went out to walk around his new neighborhood and to have brunch.

This was the first time in two months that he was able to walk some distance, and without tight security, he said.

Lascañas and his companions navigated their way through the neighborhood gayly, apparently exhilarated by the absence of fear.

This was Lascañas’ first time to travel out of the Philippines, and he said he had mixed feelings about it.

“Of course, I’m happy that I have been able to get out. But I’m also sad because this is my first time to leave. I love our country,” he said.

Then the man who admitted to killing hundreds of people allegedly on Mr. Duterte’s orders reached for a handkerchief and wiped away the tears that rolled down his cheeks.

He knew it would take a long time before he could return to the Philippines.

“I am sure, I will either be jailed or killed. It’s just one of the two possibilities. But for me, I know God has a plan and that would be my destiny for telling the truth. I have accepted that,” Lascañas said.