Senator Alan Peter Cayetano claimed that even the Commission on Human Rights denied the existence of the Davao Death Squad (DDS).
He made the statement during the third hearing of the Senate probe into the killings related to the government’s war on drugs on September 15. This is also what he told the witness and self-confessed member of the DDS, Edgar Matobato.
“Ombudsman at CHR na po ang mismong nagsasabi, tsismis lang ang DDS,” Cayetano told Matobato while grilling the witness to test his credibility.
Cayetano then went on to read the Ombudsman’s decision to stop the investigation on the DDS in 2009.
The senator also read a part of the report of Philip Alston, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, who came to the Philippines in 2007 to start a probe on the issue.
“Ito po si Philip Alston ng UN, yung special rapporteur na binabanggit parati ni [Commission on Human Rights] Chairman [Luis Martin “Chito”] Gascon. Anong sabi niya sa report niya?” Cayetano said.
“If it was not for the fact that the local office of the CHRP denies the existence of the death squad, etc etc,” Cayetano read.
Cayetano said this is proof that even the CHR considered talks about DDS as “tsismis.”
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However, committee chair Senator Leila de Lima said that Cayetano took the UN report about DDS out of context.
“My attention was called to a fact that in the report of Philip Alston which has a portion in DDS, it was mentioned there that CHR in Davao have been compromised. The one quoted by Senator Cayetano pertain not to the CHR main office bur CHR Davao Region,” de Lima said.
Even former Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manuel L. Quezon III showed the context of the report quoted by Cayetano.
In his Twitter account, Quezon posted a page of Alston’s report where Cayetano lifted what he read in the Senate.
Quezon posted, “Re Sen. Cayetano, this is what Alston *actually* wrote.”
He highlighted this part of Alston’s report: “To shut the death squad down will, however, ultimately require following the evidence upward to the handlers who task “assets” to provide the location of persons on watch lists and who direct hit men to kill them. If it were not for the fact that the local office of the CHRP denies the existence of a death squad, it should be capable of conducting an effective investigation. There are many witnesses who would provide information anonymously or who would testify were they to receive a credible protection arrangement.”
“His point? CHR was compromised,” Quezon said in his caption, echoing what de Lima said that the CHR Davao office was compromised.
Re Sen. Cayetano, this is what Alston *actually* wrote. His point? CHR compromised. See: https://t.co/xxkiCCvC4J pic.twitter.com/3Ox2dEmR7K
— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) September 15, 2016
You can watch the part of the Senate hearing when Cayetano quoted the Alston report at around 23:00 in the video below:
Sources: (gmanetwork.com, youtube.com, twitter.com)
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