Lascañas to testify on drug killings

SINGAPORE—Retired police officer Arturo Lascañas, who fled the Philippines on Saturday, said on Monday he would testify against President Duterte once a complaint was filed against him in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Wherever I am, I will stand by everything that I said [during] my second appearance [in] the Senate. Everything I said was the truth,” Lascañas told the Inquirer.

The confessed leader of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) that killed drug users and pushers and other criminal suspects allegedly on orders from Mr. Duterte, when the President was the mayor of Davao City, is now in Singapore.

He said his coming to the city-state did not mean he was turning his back on his disclosures about the DDS and Mr. Duterte’s role in the killings in Davao.

“I will stand by whatever I have said in the ICC or in the impeachment, if needed, up to my last breath because [everything] that I have said is the truth. I said all those things because I followed what God wanted me to do,” Lascañas said.

Safe house discovered

He told the Inquirer on Saturday that he was leaving the Philippines because he had received information that people who wanted him dead had learned where his safe house was located. He did not elaborate.

He said he also had learned that lawsuits would be brought against him.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Monday that his committee on public order and dangerous drugs would recommend perjury charges against Lascañas for lying to a Senate inquiry on extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs last year.

The Bureau of Immigration said on Monday that Lascañas showed a return ticket to immigration officers at Clark International Airport in Pampanga province that indicated he would be back on April 22.

Lascañas said, however, that his return to Manila was uncertain. He insisted that he had the right to travel.

Immigration officers did not stop Lascañas from boarding his flight to Singapore because there was no hold-departure order for him. Neither was he on the immigration bureau’s watch list.

Threat to his life

Perhaps when I return, I will consult my lawyers on what I should do. Because in the first place, I left because of the immiment threat to my life,” Lascañas said.

On Monday, the chief of the Philippine National Police, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, referred reporters to the “handler” of Lascañas for answers to questions about the former policeman’s flight.

“Who is his handler? Isn’t it Sen. (Antonio) Trillanes (IV)?” Dela Rosa said.

Lacson said the family of Lascañas had left for Singapore even before he testified in the Senate for the second time on March 6.

He said he wanted to know who was paying for the trip and accommodations of Lascañas and his family in Singapore.

“It may be worth [finding] out who spent for his and his family’s trips and accommodations in Singapore, which is an expensive place to stay,” the senator said in a text message.

Lacson got it wrong. The family of Lascañas traveled with him to Singapore on Saturday, not earlier.

Arturo Lascañas —NIKKO DIZON

In Singapore, Lascañas said Lacson should best understand his financial situation because the senator had gone through the same experience.

“[Authorities] looked for him; a case was filed against him. There were people who believed in his innocence, that he was doing the right thing, that’s why they sympathized with him. That’s the same with me. There are people who believe in me and are taking pity in me. So there are people helping me,” he said.

Perjury charges

Lacson said his committee would recommend perjury charges against Lascañas for turning around on his testimony about the DDS.

When he faced a Senate investigation of extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs last year, Lascañas denied the existence of the DDS.

But on Feb. 20, Lascañas retracted his testimony in a news conference. He confirmed the existence of the DDS and admitted to hundreds of killings that he claimed were ordered by Mayor Duterte.

He said he denied the existence of the DDS last year out of fear for the safety of his family. —WITH REPORTS FROM MAILA AGER, CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO, PHILIP C. TUBEZA AND JULIE M. AURELIO

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