Senate ‘Wasted’ Time Hearing Matobato’s ‘Irrelevant’ Testimony, Says Pimentel
In an interview over News To Go, Pimentel said Matobato’s testimony was “off topic” to Senate Resolution No. 9 filed by De Lima, which sought to investigate, in aid of legislation, the alleged extrajudicial killings and summary executions of suspected criminals being linked to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
“Nag-aksaya tayo ng isang buong araw para sa witness na ‘yun na wala naman siyang contribution sa proposed Senate Resolution No. 9,” Pimentel said.
“Ang hearing namin in aid of legislation, merong pinu-pursue na subject matter, hindi kahit ano pwedeng pag-usapan,” he said.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II also believes that the Senate wasted its time on Matobato.
“The Senate committee on justice hearing yesterday (Thursday) wasted valuable government resources and our people’s money by listening to the testimony of Matobato,” Aguirre said in a statement.
Aguirre maintained that Matobato’s testimony was “rich in falsity and fabrication.”
“It was not a hearing on extrajudicial killing, it was a case of extrajudicial lying!” he said.
The Cabinet official said Matobato could not even make up his mind on his facts.
Aguirre cited, among others, Matobato’s discredited claims that President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered the killing of the bodyguards of former political rival, ex-House Speaker Prospero Nograles and that he was a former bodyguard of Paolo Duterte when he allegedly studied in Ateneo de Davao.
“The most improbable statement made by Edgar Matobato yesterday? 30 persons shot a person but the latter was still alive and it took Mayor Duterte two magazine load of an uzi rifle to finish the life of the person. It so incredible!” Aguirre said.
Pimentel, a close ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, had earlier denied the request of De Lima’s committee holding the probe to grant Matobato protective custody.
He said the Senate has no witness protection program and should not grant the witness protective custody because his testimony was not related to the probe.
Matobato, a confessed hitman and member of the so-called Davao Death Squad, testified before the Senate committee on justice and human rights that Duterte had ordered the killings of several people during this term as city mayor of Davao.
Pimentel said Matobato’s testimony of alleged killings committed in the 1990s up to the year 2013 in no way proves the supposed spate of extrajudicial killings under the present Duterte administration.
“Hindi mo pwedeng sasabihin sa korte na ang akusado, ina-accuse ko na pinatay niya si Mr. X, ipapakita ko sayo na may mga namatay na A,B, C at dahil dyan, siya rin ang pumatay kay Mr. X,” he argued.
De Lima earlier said that Matobato was presented as a witness to be able to establish a “pattern.”
“Ang duda daw niya kasi ang mga nangyayari na ‘yan ay parang ganoon din daw noon, yung mga style na yan, ‘yung packing tape, sa pagdududkot parang familiar or very familiar,” the neophyte senator said. —Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez, Virgil Lopez/KBK, GMA News
Source: GMA
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