Yesterday, the third day of the confirmation of charges hearing on the case against Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court, his lawyer Nicholas Kaufman repeatedly referred to “criminal witnesses” that had allegedly given testimony to the ICC prosecutors. He didn’t name these witnesses, using instead a reference code. He questioned the credibility witnesses and criticized the prosecution for allegedly not corroborating their testimonies.
But who are these witnesses? While the ICC has not disclosed their identities — it won’t — and redacted any references to them in case documents, the speculation is that one of them must be Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed member of the Davao Death Squad, erstwhile known in Davao as the “Lambada Boys.”
In this video interview conducted by Rights Report Philippines editor Carlos Conde back in 2016, before Matobato testified at the September 2016 Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings, Matobato detailed the creation of the DDS. He said Duterte’s people recruited him in 1988 and, along with other members, went on a killing spree in the city for years while the Dutertes were in positions of power.
“I thought we were doing something good,” Matobato said in the interview conducted entirely in Cebuano.
Read Rights Report Philippines original post about the video, which can be watched on the same page or on YouTube. (Rights Report Philippines)
