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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Palace: DDS hitman a ‘perjured witness’

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A PALACE official on Friday told Senator Leila de Lima, allegedly the protector of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, to “do her homework” as he assailed his testimony before the Senate on Thursday. 

Calling Matobato a “perjured witness,” Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said his accusations against President Rodrigo Duterte didn’t hold water and questioned his motives for not making his revelations when Duterte was still mayor of Davao City. 

“Why are you saying that [only] now? There is no sane reason for not telling all these things before when President Duterte was still the Mayor [of Davao City.],” Panelo said.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo

“Second, your handler is Secretary De Lima. Senator, why not reveal that information before?”

In other developments:

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* Vice President Leni Robredo slammed Senator Alan Peter Cayetano over the “serious” allegations against her and the Liberal Party to which she belongs over an alleged plot to oust Duterte using self-confessed hitman Matobato.

“To me, the allegation is too serious. For me, we can just take this with a grain of salt,” she said.

“As I said earlier, let us just stay vigilant.” 

* In Davao City, the legal counsel of Supt. Leonardo Felonia, the alleged brains behind the killing of Cebu-based hotelier Richard Lim King, said he was studying to use the statements of the Matobato to prove his claim that Felonia had nothing to do with the killing.

Caesar Europa said Matobato’s statements corroborated his client’s claim that he was innocent.

* The Armed Forces of the Philippine said Friday it had no records on the existence of a certain Sali Mukham, an alleged international terrorist executed by Matobato and other members of the “Davao Death Squad” in 2002.

* National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran denied any links to Matobato, who claimed that he worked with him for 15 years.

“I know Matobato as a witness but he has never been a part of my work before in Davao,“ Gierran said Friday.

* Due to the refusal of Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to give protective custody to Matobato, Senator Leila de Lima said Friday she was  withdrawing their request and bringing it back to her committee, saying the matter was not a  prerogative of the Senate President.

Duterte’s chief legal counsel said the testimonies of Matobato were obviously lies, adding the witness could not even remember the names of the victims they had killed.

“His facts are all convoluted,” Panelo said.

“Where can you see someone who confesses to a crime but doesn’t know whom he killed? So you cannot even sue him because there is no victim. It’s very obvious that he’s lying.” 

Testifying for the first time, Matobato, 57, tied Duterte to the alleged Davao Death Squad, which is said to be behind the killings of thousands of criminals and suspects when he was Davao City mayor.

Matobato said that Duterte personally gave them the order to kill, abduct and assassinate people.

Panelo, who questioned the credibility of De Lima’s “perjured witness,” said Matobato’s revelations were just meant to discredit the President.

“Obviously, this witness,just wants to destroy the name of the President and his family. But no amount of black propaganda, no amount of sinister ploy or plan will stop the President from his relentless campaign against the drug menace and terrorism,” Panelo said. 

“It’s very obvious that he’s lying.”

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