SENATE PROBE The Senate committee headed by Sen. Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of President Duterte, hears the testimony of Edgar Matobato, a confessed hit聽man from Davao City, as it continues to investigate alleged extrajudicial killings in the Duterte administration鈥檚 brutal campaign against illegal drugs. RICHARD A. REYES
As far as Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was concerned, the testimony of the witness came unglued when he failed to identify the right kind of tape used in the killings he had confessed to being part of.
Cayetano asked the former militiaman, Edgar Matobato, who was presented on Thursday as a witness during the Senate hearing on summary killings in Davao, what kind of tape was used in the executions by the Davao Death Squad (DDS) that the latter claimed he had participated in.
鈥淢asking tape,鈥� Matobato said.
The senator then presented him a bag full of different kinds of adhesive tape and asked him to choose which one he was referring to. Matobato promptly picked a roll of packaging tape out of the lot.
鈥淵ou earlier said masking tape. I deliberately did not put masking tape in there because I know masking tape easily tears,鈥� Cayetano said.
鈥淚 call everything here masking tape,鈥� the witness explained. 鈥淏ut that is the kind we use,鈥� he said, pointing to the packaging tape he had picked out.
鈥楥harlie Mike鈥�
In his testimony at the hearing on DDS killings being linked to then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Matobato said the mayor, or 鈥淐harlie Mike鈥� as he was known to his alleged band of assassins, had masterminded about a thousand summary killings.
Matobato, 57, said he was hired by the mayor as one of his 鈥淟ambada Boys鈥� in 1988, and was a 鈥済host employee鈥� at the Davao City Hall for 24 years as part of the Civilian Security Unit whose job it was to kill criminals.
He said he left the group and entered the witness protection program (WPP) later when his conscience started bothering him, as even innocent civilians were being targeted.
He left the WPP after Mr. Duterte won the presidential elections, Matobato added.
Asked later what he had hoped to achieve in presenting the witness an array of adhesive tapes, Cayetano said, 鈥淚f you鈥檙e in a syndicate or (is a) killer, you know what kind of tape to use.鈥�
If you鈥檙e a TV camera operator, you are an expert in all types of cameras and you know which to use for a telenovela or for movies, or for news, the senator said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the same (for) killers. They don鈥檛 use just any tape (in executions). They buy a specific kind of tape, duct tape or packaging tape because if you use just any tape, it loses adhesion. Masking tape tears easily,鈥� Cayetano said.
Ordinary people, he said, won鈥檛 notice the difference.
鈥淏ut if you鈥檙e a killer and it鈥檚 your style, like the style of some drug cartels abroad, there is a purpose (to the) tape that you鈥檇 use,鈥� he said.
Asked what he thought of Matobato鈥檚 testimony, Cayetano said, 鈥淥ne hundred percent all lies.鈥�