Nowhere to run

Herbie Gomez

SELF-CONFESSED hitman Edgar Matobato’s story about how he and his group were responsible for an orgy of killings in Davao for nearly three decades came as a shock not because we didn’t know that, for years, people have been mysteriously killed in the President’s hometown. We’re not even surprised that Matobato linked the President to the killings.

The President actually capitalized on his “Duterte Harry” image to win the presidency. Once, he claimed in a cavalier manner that he was actually behind at least 1,700 deaths when he was confronted about how he allegedly had 700 people killed. He said that in jest, and then reporters laughed. During one of the presidential debates this year, he told one of his opponents that only the candidate who was prepared to kill and be killed was fit to become President. About the same time, he also threatened to make Manila Bay a dumpsite for corpses if elected President. Many people liked what they heard. And so, we knew.

We know about what the President is capable of doing, and Matobato merely gave the so-called Davao Death Squad a human face. But what really startled us were not his claims about the Davao killings but the thought that an ordinary citizen had mustered enough courage to face senators and accuse the most powerful man of the land of masterminding over a thousand summary executions.

Whether or not Matobato is telling the truth, he is a sitting duck from whatever angle one looks at it. He cannot go to the National Police or the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to seek refuge because he has named and linked some of its officials and members to the murders. Besides, the NBI is under the Department of Justice (DOJ) headed by Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, one of the President’s men who quickly called Matobato’s allegations “lies” and “fabrications.” An official of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) told Matobato that the Commission cannot give him protection, and Senate President Aquilino Martin Pimentel III, without a doubt another Duterte man, has rejected a request for the Senate to place the witness under protective custody. So, where can Matobato seek refuge now when even the senators who presented him as a witness cannot guarantee their own safety?

Even outside prison, Matobato is a dead man walking. But the man probably thought that the only option he had was to walk on a tight rope. By his own account, he claims, he has been a marked man, a target for liquidation, even before he faced senators. If true, then the tight rope (read: going public with what he knows) may just give him a very slim chance of survival because in a situation like this, a Hail Mary pass is better than no options at all.

I hope no one would do Matobato in. He could be silenced by those who want to keep matters away from the public eye or, as former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. puts it, by those who want to pin the blame on the President.

I must say that I cannot tell who is telling the truth and who is not. Not yet. Not today. But I want to listen more. As for those who pretend to know, I’m curious to hear them say why they think they are in the position to say who’s lying and who’s not after Thursday’s first Senate committee hearing on his testimony.

Why is it that whenever the President threatens, and brags about how he kills, many people cheer but when another comes forward to give all the gory details, they quickly dismiss it and say it can’t be true? And why is it that we can say that a man who bothers not to give details as he reads names from a long list that came from who-knows-where is credible while a 1st grader who names people using nothing but the power of his memory while he gives his narrative is not?

If President Duterte reads a list of “drug personalities” again and names one of his sons, Davao Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, I wonder how many of us would actually require details for purposes of scrutiny.

This is how this witness with a firsthand account, credible or not, is being demolished:

“Matobato is not credible. Matobato is not credible. Matobato is not credible. Matobato is not credible. Matobato is not credible. Matobato is not credible.”

Repeat that over and over again. Then he becomes “not credible.” Pastilan.