Matobato surrenders: ‘I trust my life to God’

“I entrust my life to God. Whatever happens to me, I’ll accept,” confessed hit man Edgar Matobato said on Friday as he turned himself in at Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV accompanied Matobato to PNP headquarters, where the witness in the Senate inquiry into extrajudicial killings in President Duterte’s war on drugs was taken to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) office for booking.

He was read his rights and handcuffed.

A court in Davao City ordered Matobato arrested on Tuesday after he failed to show up for his arraignment on illegal weapons charges filed against him two years ago.

The PNP chief, Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, told reporters that Matobato would be taken to court in compliance with the judge’s order.

Safety guaranteed

Dela Rosa also guaranteed Matobato’s safety while in police custody and on the trip to Davao.

Asked about fears that Matobato would be in danger in Davao because he had tagged several former and current policemen there as vigilantes, Dela Rosa replied, “That’s their opinion. For me, it’s safer in Davao. I’m from there. We can manage the situation there. I know the place very well, so he’ll be safe there.”

He said Matobato would be given a bulletproof vest and a helmet to ease fears about his safety.

“I’m giving the assurance that if he’ll be killed, it will be over the dead bodies of our CIDG personnel assigned to him. That’s my word,” Dela Rosa said.

“We’ll give him a bulletproof vest to wear, even a helmet, bulletproof goggles and mask. We can armorize his whole body… If you want, we can even make him wear a bomb suit so that even if the vehicle explodes, he’ll remain safe. There won’t be a scratch on him. We’ll do everything to keep him safe,” he said.

As an additional precaution, Dela Rosa said, Matobato’s detention place at Camp Crame will not be divulged.

He said Matobato would stay in Camp Crame during the weekend. He said Matobato would be taken to Davao anytime between now and Monday.

In the Senate, where he appeared before Trillanes took him to Camp Crame, Matobato told reporters he did not fear for his life.

‘I’m not afraid’

“I’m not afraid. I’m ready. I give my life to God. I cannot do anything about what could happen to me. I just want to right the wrongs I have done,” he said.

Matobato said he was disappointed that the Senate committee on justice and human rights, which is investigating alleged extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, had decided not to call him back to the witness stand.

The committee decided on Tuesday to set aside Matobato’s testimony, calling the confessed assassin “damaged goods” without credibility.

In his testimony last month, Matobato said President Duterte, when he was still mayor of Davao, ordered the killing of about 1,000 suspected criminals and family opponents and carried out one of the slayings himself.

Matobato said the killers were policemen, militiamen and former communist rebels, and he was one of them. He said he carried out about 50 of the killings, including the slayings of a suspected foreign terrorist and of a man who was fed alive to crocodiles.

His testimony drew international media coverage, heightening concerns in the United Nations, United States, European Union and among human rights groups about violations of human rights in Mr. Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Matobato’s testimony cost Sen. Leila de Lima, the fiercest critic of Mr. Duterte in the Senate, the chairmanship of the committee on justice and human rights.

Mr. Duterte’s allies in the Senate stripped her of the committee’s chairmanship and replaced him with Sen. Richard Gordon.

‘Highly suspicious’

Trillanes, a member of the committee who is providing protective custody to Matobato, told reporters on Friday the committee would call the witness back after he posted bail.

He said the timing of the issuance of the arrest warrant was “highly suspicious.”

“What we see here is that this is part of the persecution. . .If you are a critic of the President, this is what will happen to you,” he said.

Trillanes said Matobato was determined to face the charges against him.

“He said his surrender here showed he was not fleeing. Of course, in times like this, there is some anxiety. He doesn’t know what will happen to him. But it’s good that he was given the PNP’s assurance [of safety],” he said.

Trillanes said lawyers were studying options that would allow Matobato to post bail without going to Davao.

A motion for reconsideration of the arrest warrant will also be filed, he said.

He said a pleading would also be prepared for the transfer of the venue of the hearings from Davao to, preferably, Manila.

Sending Matobato to Davao, Mr. Duterte’s turf, would be “like throwing him to the lion’s den,” he said.

Trillanes said the judge would “do the right thing.”

He said a lawyer helping Matobato would try to post bail for the witness at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.

Matobato posted P2,000 bail when the charge was brought against him in 2014. He claimed police barged into his home without a search warrant and seized his unlicensed firearm, in an apparent attempt to link him to the murder of a businessman. —with a report from Maila Ager