Trillanes seeks Duterte probe

Senator Antonio Trillanes. AFP FILE PHOTO

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV now wants the Senate to investigate the alleged direct involvement of President Rodrigo Duterte in the killings of more than 1,000 people through the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) to “rule out” the possibility that Filipinos had elected a “mass murderer.”

After delivering a privilege speech at the Senate session hall on Monday, Trillanes moved that the Senate committee on accountability of public officers and investigations — also known as the blue ribbon committee — investigate the President.

“Now we that have seen the different corroborating evidence on the testimony of Mr. Edgar Matobato, we are faced with a very frightening prospect—that is of having a mass murderer as President of the country,” the senator said in his speech.

“I’m sure, prior to this inquiry, all of us have heard of rumors about the Davao Death Squad and that then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was somehow behind it.”

Matobato, who claimed to be a former DDS member, has accused Duterte of allegedly ordering the killings of over 1,000 people from 1998 to 2013.

READ: Duterte ordered us to bomb mosque, kill Muslims–‘DDS’ member

“With this, each of us in this august chamber is at a crossroads and the whole world is watching our next step,” Trillanes said.

“On one hand, we can sweep this very serious allegations under the rug or we can decide to fulfill our mandate in our system of checks and balances by expanding our investigation to rule out that possibility that indeed we have a mass murderer as President of the Republic,” he added.

After his speech, Trillanes moved that his speech be referred to the blue ribbon committee “so that an inquiry be conducted to look into the alleged direct involvement of then mayor and now President Rodrigo Duterte and other public officials in the killings of more than a thousand persons in Davao City through the so-called Davao Death Squad.”

But Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, a known ally of Duterte, immediately stood up to interpellate Trillanes. RAM/rga