Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV yesterday scored Sen. Richard J. Gordon for his plan to abruptly end the hearings into the rampant extrajudicial killings and summary executions and called the move a cover-up.
Trillanes said Gordon, who replaced Sen. Leila M. de Lima as chairperson of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, should pursue the hearings due to their relevance to the widespread killings amid President Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
Trillanes also rejected Gordon’s decision to dismiss Edgar Matobato who had testified on the alleged existence of the vigilante group Davao Death Squad.
Matobato tagged Duterte and his son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paulo, in a number of killings in Davao City and forming the DDS.
“Of course, we have to continue particularly the Davao Death Squad issue because it’s very relevant to the extrajudicial killings that are happening now,” Trillanes said in an interview over ANC Headstart.
“It gives us a template or an image of how they did it in Davao in relation to what’s happening. Aside from that there is a very serious allegation that the President himself was the mastermind of the Davao Death Squad,” the senator said. (Hannah L. Torregoza)