{"id":81436,"date":"2016-09-23T01:31:07","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T05:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81436"},"modified":"2016-09-23T01:31:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T05:31:07","slug":"sen-trillanes-matobatos-inconsistencies-colleagues-took-advantage-language-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/23\/sen-trillanes-matobatos-inconsistencies-colleagues-took-advantage-language-barrier\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Trillanes on Matobato\u2019s inconsistencies: Colleagues \u2018took advantage\u2019 of language barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trillanes<\/a>
Trillanes also described Matobato\u2019s inconsistencies as \u201ctrivial\u201d. (Facebook photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014Senator Antonio \u201cSonny\u201d Trillanes IV on Friday came to the defense of witness Edgar Matobato, alleged former member of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), after senators pointed out inconsistencies in his testimonies in a Senate hearing on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a language barrier and a few of my colleagues took advantage of that. They have succeeded in showing that they are better than a Grade 1 student,\u201d Trillanes said in a text message.<\/p>\n

Matobato, whose first language is Bisaya, mentioned in a previous hearing that he had only finished first grade.<\/p>\n

During Thursday\u2019s hearing, an apparently confused Matobato had trouble understanding some words and phrases in Filipino when cross-examined by senators.<\/p>\n

A few senators, however, were able to communicate with him in Bisaya, including Alan Peter Cayetano, Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Pacquiao and Juan Miguel \u201cMigz\u201d Zubiri.<\/p>\n

This prompted Senator Richard \u201cDick\u201d Gordon, chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, to quip that these senators were among the few people able to understand the witness.<\/p>\n

Trillanes also described Matobato\u2019s inconsistencies as \u201ctrivial\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inconsistencies, if any, were trivial as shown by the transcript. And, despite the badgering, Matobato was consistent about the events and other details he was sure about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cayetano grilled Matobato for saying that alleged terrorist Sali Makdum, one of DDS\u2019 alleged victims, was killed upon orders of President Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n

Matobato denied that he earlier said that it was the President who personally gave orders to kill Makdum, but explained that it was Duterte\u2019s right-hand man, SPO4 Arthur Lasca\u00f1a who told him the orders came from the then mayor of Davao City.<\/p>\n

Gordon called out Matobato for looking at the direction of Trillanes and Senator Leila de Lima as he was being questioned.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao also reprimanded him for his inconsistencies, pointing out that no one would believe him if he continued to be inconsistent. He finished interrogating believing that Matobato had a \u201ccoach\u201d to teach him what to say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Senator Antonio \u201cSonny\u201d Trillanes IV on Friday came to the defense of witness Edgar Matobato, alleged former member of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":16832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[3374,8624,10823,12229,12309,803,11129,11556,4306],"class_list":["post-81436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-alan-peter-cayetano","tag-antonio-trillanes","tag-davao-death-squad","tag-edgar-matobato","tag-juan-miguel-zubiri","tag-manny-pacquiao","tag-philippine-senate","tag-senate-inquiry","tag-senators","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}