By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM
A SENATOR who has been hounding President Duterte on Monday presented a Davao City policeman who confessed to being a member of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS), which carried out hit projects purportedly ordered by then-Mayor now President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Accompanied by lawyers of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), Senior Police Officer 3 Arturo Lascañas corroborated the earlier testimony of Edgar Matobato, who was the first to implicate Duterte to the spate of killings by the DDS in Davao, including the assasination of radio broadcaster Jun Pala.
“I promised God I will make a full confession,” Lascañas said, admitting, among others, that they received a P1-million “bonus” from then-Mayor Duterte for killing Pala.
Lascañas recalled that Duterte had “asked his driver to tell me to go after Jun Pala because he kept on attacking the mayor,” adding that he was initially offered P2 million to carry out the plan to assasinate Pala.
“We tried to assassinate Pala but it was aborted twice so we paid Pala’s bodyguards for information when to hit him by sending us the coded message ‘its showtime’.” He added: “Duterte paid us P3 million…even gave us bonus.”
Facing reporters at the Senate, Lascañas said he was one of the founders of the DDS directly linked to the wave of extrajudicial killings in Davao City when Duterte was serving as mayor.
Lascañas disclosed that he and other National Police personnel were also involved in the group that retaliated for the bombing of Davao’s San Pedro Cathedral by lobbing grenade at a mosque, tagging a certain “Major Macasaet” as the one who gave them “money from Duterte” for the hit.
“Ito po ang katotohanan,” Lascañas said, adding a clear admission against interest: “Consider the Pala murder case solved. I am one of those who killed him.”
Lascañas, who was presented by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, likewise, admitted causing the killing of his brothers—Cecilio and Fernando—who were linked to drugs as result of his loyalty to Duterte.