MANILA \u2013 Alleged leader of the so-called vigilante group Davao Death Squad (DDS) SPO3 Arthur Lasca\u00f1as on Monday suggested that \u201csomebody\u201d must be behind attempts to get witness and self-confessed former DDS hitman Edgar Matobato to implicate him in unresolved deaths in Davao City.<\/p>\n
Matobato has claimed in a previous Senate hearing that some Davao City police officers from the Heinous Crimes Division took orders from then mayor now President Rodrigo Duterte and his alleged right-hand man, Lasca\u00f1as.<\/p>\n
Lasca\u00f1as denied the existence of the vigilante group or that he was its alleged leader. He also denied that he was at all close to President Duterte, saying he was rarely seen with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody must be behind him (Matobato),\u201d Lasca\u00f1as told Senator Panfilo \u201cPing\u201d Lacson when asked why he thought Matobato claimed he was behind the extrajudicial killings in Davao City.<\/p>\n
He however admitted that he knew Matobato after the latter offered him a property deal back in 1986.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my memory is correct, in 1986, Edgar Matobato approached me and tried to sell me property. He said he had a friend from Samal Island who had property which was to be sold,\u201d Lasca\u00f1as said.<\/p>\n
He said that he used to moonlight as a real estate broker.<\/p>\n
Senator Leila de Lima, meanwhile, asked Lasca\u00f1as how close he and Matobato were, to which he acknowledged that Matobato attended his birthday parties.<\/p>\n
Lasca\u00f1as confirmed that he did give Matobato a wristwatch at one point, which was second-hand and not brand-new as Matobato previously claimed.<\/p>\n
He however denied that he and other cops were responsible for torturing Matobato after he allegedly decided to leave the vigilante group.<\/p>\n
He also denied previous incidents in Davao City stated by Matobato, including the bombing of a mosque, the killing of radio reporter and critic of President Duterte, Jun Pala, and feeding bodyguards of then mayoral candidate Prospero Nograles to crocodiles.<\/p>\n
Lacson, after hearing Lasca\u00f1as\u2019 testimony, reiterated that personally, he did not find Matobato to be a \u201ccredible witness\u201d.<\/p>\n
Senator Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Pacquiao for his part questioned how Matobato could get Lasca\u00f1as\u2019 rank wrong, if they were close, as Matobato claimed.<\/p>\n
Matobato earlier said that Lasca\u00f1as was an SPO4. It was however later confirmed that he was SPO3.<\/p>\n
Senator Antonio \u201cSonny\u201d Trillanes IV meanwhile made Lasca\u00f1as admit that Matobato would usually address him as \u201cchief\u201d and therefore concluded that their informal way of talking to each other should also be put into consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANILA \u2013 Alleged leader of the so-called vigilante group Davao Death Squad (DDS) SPO3 Arthur Lasca\u00f1as on Monday suggested that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":63486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[10823,10822,12385,12339],"class_list":["post-81765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-davao-death-squad","tag-dds","tag-lascanas","tag-matobato","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81765","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=81765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}