PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has finally broken his silence on the allegation of a self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato that he was behind the killings in Davao city when he was the former mayor.
In a chance interview at Matina Enclaves, Davao City after meeting the Davao blast victims, the President vehemently denied that he ordered the alleged vigilante group Davao Death Squad (DDS) to kill criminals in the city.
“It’s a lie,” said Duterte about Matobatos’ claim, barely a week after being mum on the issue.
Last Thursday, Matobato, alleged former DDS members, faced a Senate probe and pointed that the President was the brain of the summary executions of over 1,000 criminals in Davao City.
Duterte dismissed the allegation and warned that anyone who allows another person to make a false oath is committing a crime.
“If you know it’s a lie and you egg a person to testify, you are an active participant. [When you tell him,] ‘Okay, okay, you testify,’ that is subornation of perjury,” the President said.
Despite the controversy, Duterte remained unfazed and said that he would ensure that all drug lords in the country would be “fully exterminated.”
“I have to solve this problem. Drugs – it will continue. I don’t care whether there is a thousand hearings everywhere. I am focused on the problem,” Duterte said.
“I will not stop until the last pusher in the streets, around the streets are fully exterminated. I will not stop…I will really kill drug lords. Make no bones about it,” he added. (Sunnex)