‘No new reso, no more Matobato’ - Sen.Pres. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III

A NEW resolution would be needed before the Senate could look further into the testimony of self-described hit man Edgar Matobato, who accused President Duterte of ordering him and others to kill criminals in Davao City when Mr. Duterte was its mayor, Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Sunday.

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Pimentel, president of Mr. Duterte’s political party, PDP-Laban, said he would relay this to Sen. Leila De Lima today because the Senate committee on justice and human rights had gone “off topic” when it heard Matobato’s testimony implicating the President.

The committee, chaired by De Lima, is conducting an investigation into the recent killings of drug suspects in the government war on illegal drugs.

Meanwhile, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV noted that Mr. Duterte’s silence following Matobato’s explosive testimony was “unusual,” adding that the President needs to respond because this is a “direct accusation” against him.

Matobato, 57, testified at the committee hearing on Sept. 15 that the Davao Death Squad (DDS) to which he belonged killed about 1,000 people on orders of Mr. Duterte when he was mayor of Davao City. He said he himself killed at least 50 people as a member of the DDS from 1988 to 2013.

 Force a vote

Trillanes said he would rise at today’s Senate session to question Pimentel’s ruling not to provide protective custody to Matobato, and possibly force the chamber to vote on the Senate President’s ruling.

“If it’s needed [for senators to vote on Pimentel’s ruling against providing Matobato protective custody], so we can know the position of each of us on this issue,” Trillanes said on a radio program on Sunday.

He said it should not be a case of Pimentel just issuing such a ruling without the approval of the other senators.

In the same radio program, Pimentel said he was just looking after the Senate’s “time, resources, direction and focus,” when he rejected De Lima’s request for the chamber to provide protective custody to Matobato.

The senator initiated the “Oplan Galugad” or the series of raids inside the New Bilibid Prison. The first raid was on Dec. 15, 2014 where members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) seized firearms, illegal drugs, cash, jewelries and posh appliances inside the prison. Nineteen high-profile inmates were then transferred to the NBI to prevent them from continuing with their illegal activities. Sebastian was not included.

Before the end of 2014, De Lima gave the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) two weeks to dismantle all kubols.

“I told them not to wait for me to be the one to do it…I reiterated that if Jaybee Sebastian has a kubol, it should be dismantled. Do not wait for me to do it,” De Lima told reporters in a previous interview.

Aguirre said if Sebastian was a government asset, he should not have been included in the list of investigative agencies as among the personalities involved in crimes.

“Also, if it is true that he was an asset, it is stupid to separate Jaybee from the Bilibid 19 [inmates transferred to NBI after De Lima’s first Bilbid raid],” Aguirre said.

“Why did you separate him from the other high-profile inmates?” he added.

During the House of Representatives inquiry into the proliferation of illegal drugs inside prison, 
Aguirre presented a documentary that featured Sebastian’s posh office inside the prison.

Not important

Pimentel said Matobato’s testimony was “not important in the eyes of the Senate” because the latter was testifying on matters that supposedly happened from 1988 to 2013, which was not the subject of Senate Resolution No. 9 being heard by De Lima’s committee.

Told that De Lima said she wanted to establish a pattern of extrajudicial killings in Davao City leading to the present-day killings of drug suspects through Matobato’s testimony, Pimentel said De Lima had not even established the “author” of the Davao killings. He said De Lima admitted that Matobato’s testimony was an “independent topic.”

“I will advise her to file a separate resolution and she should wait for the proper action on it by the Senate. I cannot even say that it would go to the justice committee. It all depends on how the resolution will be written,” the Senate President said.

At  most, Pimentel said the Davao killings could go either to the Senate blue ribbon committee or the public order committee.

Protection not in rules

As to the statements by De Lima and Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon that the justice committee could provide Matobato protective custody, Pimentel said the Senate rules did not say so.

If committee members insist on securing Matobato on the Senate premises, Pimentel said that as Senate president he had control over the chamber premises.

Trillanes, meanwhile, said Mr. Duterte should address Matobato’s allegations, noting that if someone was accused wrongly, he or she would tend to be indignant about it.

source:INQUIRERNET