Matobato: Is he for real?

Jude Josue Sabio

IN a forum dubbed “Tapatan sa Aristocrat,” the topic was “Matobato: Is He For Real?” The guests were Vergel Santos, a news analyst of the New York Times and yours truly as counsel for Edgar Matobato. This forum was held on Feb. 6, 2017 at the Aristocrat Restaurant at Roxas Blvd., Manila. The moderator was Mel Acuna.

In the forum, as lawyer for Matobato, I maintained my belief in the credibility of Matobato. The stagerring details he revealed at the Senate hearing were so numerous that even a professional witness would find it impossible to invent. It is hard to invent a story and testify in a proceeding, more frighteningly so in the Senate; it would even be next to impossible to invent so many stories with so numerous details.

Then surfaced Arthur Lascanas. In his press conference at the Senate on Feb. 20, 2017, Lascanas confirmed the truthfulness of Matobato’s account.  According to Lascanas, the Davao Death Squad is real, for in one killing incident, they placed a sign on the crime scene bearing the name  “Davao Death Squad.”

The legal existence, of course, of the Davao Death Squad can never be proven, because it was never, and in fact may not be, registered as a legal entity.   But based on Lascana’s account, he alleged that the then Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the killings of suspected criminals and other personalities in Davao City.

Two murder incidents were mentioned by Lascanas. First is the Jun Barsabal murder. And second is the Jun Pala murder. Lascanas confirmed the testimony of Matobato regarding these two murders.

According to Matobato, Barsabal was ordered to be taken alive.  Matobato could not just gun him down.   He had to take him alive, and it was extremely difficult because Barsabal knew martial arts, and finally in a scuffle, Matobato was able to neutralize him hitting his groin.

Barsabal was brought to four mayors, and then finally to Duterte at a Matina golf course where the then mayor allegedly slammed Barsabal with a golf club, causing his teeth to be uprooted, and afterwards, Duterte allegedly told the group to kill Barsabal.

Earlier, Duterte pronounced publicly that he knew who the killer of Jun Pala was. As testified by Matobato, Duterte ordered the murder of Jun Pala. This is now confirmed by Lascanas. All the while, what Duterte said that he knew the identity of the killer is true because, based on the accounts of the witnesses, it is no other than himself.

It would be stretching too much to assert that Matobato is not for real. His narrative alone, based on the staggering details, is credible and believable by itself. He was pilloried in the Senate by senators allied with Duterte. But in the end, with Lascanas out like a genie off the bottle, Matobato is vindicated.

This is not to mention the fact that earlier or in 2009, Ernesto Avasola already testified about the Davao Death Squad, saying that he saw five persons murdered by the Davao Death Squad and was allegedly instructed by Bienvenido Laud to bury the bodies in three caves in the Laud quarry. This is based on a decision of the Supreme Court.

The glaring evidence clearly is consistent with what Duterte publicly pronounced that he is the Davao Death Squad, and that he killed not just 700 but more than a thousand in Davao City.

He boasted once to the then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that the best practice to eradicate crime is to klll suspected criminals. No wonder then that Duterte boasted of Davao City as the ninth safest city in the world.

Now, it is as clear as the sun rising in the east that the policy of extra-judicial killings of  suspected criminals in Davao City when Duterte was mayor is being replicated as a template or model in the extra-judicial killings in the country in the so-called war of drugs that has already claimed more than 7,000 lives.

The Senate should re-open the investigation into the Davao Death Squad and the current extra-judicial killings in the country, and summon Lascanas and Matobato to the hearing.

In the ultimate analysis, after having admitted murders committed by him, the impeachment of President Rodrigo Duterte is already ripe.