SENATOR Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate justice and human rights committee, ruled no basis was found on allegations that extrajudicial killing of suspected criminals in line with President’s bloody war against drugs, was state-sponsored.
He also ruled out the existence of the so-called Davao death squad, saying it was just a media creation. This effectively cleared Duterte of Davao killings of more than 10,000 suspected criminals.
He said the DDS killings, allegedly sanctioned by Duterte when he was Davao City mayor, was not proven during the committee hearing on extra-judicial killings or summary executions of drug personalities.
The committee, Gordon said, also found “Operation Tokhang” violative of the Constitutional rights of an individual.
Under such police operation, he noted that the constitutional rights of an individual against self-incrimination is violated.
The senator said that during the operation, then suspected drug addicts or former addicts were asked to surrender and sign a paper stating they were addicts or former users without the presence of a lawyer.
Gordon, who replaced Senator Leila de Lima as committee chairman, also said self-confessed DDS hitman Edgar Matobato should be charged with murder for the killing of certain Salim Makdum whom he and his cohorts kidnapped.
On De Lima and Trillanes, he said they should be sanctioned for their bad behavior but left other senators to pursue the matter.
Gordon also said De Lima has also committed “material concealment” for such act.
Trillanes, on the other hand, allegedly hid Matobato when the latter was about to be confronted by senators on the kidnapping case he was facing before the National Bureau of Investigation, also on the case of Makdum, Gordon said
He said these findings will be contained in the committee report which is still being routed among committee members for signature.