Fireworks flew thick and thin on the Senate floor yesterday afternoon when Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV asked a full-dress investigation into a serious allegation that the Philippines has “the frightening prospect of having a mass murderer as President of the country’’ through the creation of the Davao Death Squad.
In a privilege speech, Trillanes said that Filipinos can no look the other way anymore because (DDS hitman) Edgar Matobato is staring us in the face, he has testified that President Duterte as Davao city mayor) was the mastermind behind the DDS which was responsible for killing of 1,000 persons from 1988 to 2013.’’
“With this this august chamber is at the cross roads and the whole world is watching our next step. On one hand we can sweep this very serious allegation under the rug or we can decide to fulfill our mandate in our checks and balances by expanding our investigation to rule out that possibility that indeed we have a mass murderer as President of the Republic.
Trillanes then moved that his speech be referred to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to look into the alleged direct involvement of then mayor and now PresidentDuterte and other public officials in the killing of 1,000 through the DDS
“I am not here to oust anybody, not yet anyway,’’ Trillanes said in reply to a countermove by President Duterte;s political ally, Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano who maintained that the testimonies against Duterte given by Matobato during the last two Senate committee hearings were full of inconsistencies.
Trillanes took almost one hour to stress that the testimonies of Motabato, 57, a confessed DDS member, were true and not pockmarked with inconsistencies.
Senate President Aquilino “Koko’’ Pimentel IV, a political ally of Duterte, tried to cool things off by calling for a recess as Trillanes, a former Navy officer, and Cayetano, a lawyer, got into heated argument bordering on the personal.
Cayetano told Trillanes that he would not back away from Trillanes if there is any fight. (MARIO CASAYURAN)