Lascañas details Davao Death Squad structure
March 6, 2017 | 12:07pm
A retired police officer Arthur Lascañas speaks during a news conference at the Philippine Senate in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines, Monday, Feb. 20, 2017. Lascañas said President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was a city mayor, ordered and paid him and other members of a so-called liquidation squad to kill criminals and opponents, including a kidnapping suspect and his entire family and a critical radio commentator.
AP Photo / Bullit Marquez
MANILA, Philippines — Retired SPO3 Arthur Lascañas, who claims to be one of the leaders of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) in Davao City, reiterated on Monday the existence of the group and explained its structure in a Senate inquiry investigating the killings it allegedly committed.
Lascañas detailed before senators the structure of the DDS, a group of hitmen that President Rodrigo Duterte allegedly used as his liquidation squad during his time as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao.
Lascañas, a self-confessed hitman and leader of the group, said that when Duterte was first elected mayor of the city in 1988, he organized an anti-crime task force which was led by Major Ernesto Macasaet, a close associate of the then mayor.
Lascañas said that the police task force led by Macasaet was composed of other policemen from Davao City.
Aside from Lascañas, the other members of the anti-crime unit were retired Inspector Ildefonso Asentista, SPO4 (Ret.) Bienvenido Laud, the late SPO4 Fulgencio Pabo, SPO4 Geremias Baguhin, SPO3 Teodoro Pagidupon and SPO2 Jun Laresma.
“Una po, since naging mayor si Mayor Rodrigo Duterte kami na po ang pinakaunang death squad. Start of 1989 up to the middle of 1998,” Lascañas told senators.
Lascañas said that initially, the group was serious about going after criminals and organized crime, and this resulted in a decline in the crime rate of the city.
Winds, however, began to change shortly after when then-Mayor Duterte began organizing liquidation squads which later became known as the DDS.
Lascañas said Duterte started to order the killings of his personal and political enemies aside from drug addicts, drug pushers, snatchers and robbers.
“It was at this time that Mayor Duterte began organizing liquidation squads that later became known as the Davao Death Squads or DDS,” Lascañas said in his affidavit.
“We became like hired or contract killers who killed not only criminals but innocent people.”
Lascañas said that it was only in 2001 when the group formally became known as the Davao Death Squad.
He said that upon his reelection as mayor of Davao City in 2001 Duterte created a heinous crime group where the retired policeman was one of the senior leaders.
He said the name “Davao Death Squad” was coined after an attack on the house of Allan Tancio in Bacaca Heights, Davao City led by Asentista.
Lascañas said that they used a group of New People’s Army (NPA) rebel returnees as their assault team.
Asentista, he claimed, ordered them to write a note saying that the attack was perpetrated by NPA rebels, but somebody in their group protested. The protester said that using the name of the NPA might irritate Duterte or arouse the anger of the communist rebels.
“So dito napagkasunduan ng grupo na isulat ang 'Davao Death Squad,'” Lascañas recounted.
Lascañas further said: “Nangyari ito and the first casualty ng Davao Death Squad e yung katulong ni Allan Tancio. Wala kaming nakuhang drugs, nothing. Dito po nag-umpisa. Totoo ang Davao Death Squad. Totoo naman ang sinabi ni Edgar Matobato."
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