Gov’t urged to investigate Dutertes
HUMAN rights group Karapatan urged the Marcos administration on Thursday to investigate testimonies given by whistleblowers that incriminate former president Rodrigo R. Duterte in violent excesses during his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
“Not only have the whistleblowers implicated Duterte’s group in the DDS killings. They have pinpointed Rodrigo Duterte as one of, if not the biggest, drug lord in the country who used his aggressive anti-drugs war as a convenient cover and an opportunity to eliminate rival drug kingpins,” said Kaparatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay.
She was referring to previous testimonies given by self-confessed hitman, Edgar Matobato, retired police officer Arturo Lascañas.
Last Wednesday, Mr. Lascañas named Mr. Duterte, Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, as well as Senators Ronald M. Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence T. Go as responsible for the “war on drugs” that killed thousands.
In response, Ms. Duterte-Carpio called the accusations “a new script” from critics.
“In my years as a vice mayor and mayor of Davao City, my name was never involved in any of these issues,” she said in a statement.
But Ms. Palabay said that Mr. Matobato’s previous testimony on the alleged involvement of the Dutertes and their allies on vigilante killings in Davao City must also be revisited.
“It is high time that these revelations not only be seriously investigated through Philippine domestic mechanisms. For the sake of the victims, who number in the tens of thousands, the investigations must exact justice and accountability from the perpetrators,” she said. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz