Lascañas fails to return amid NBI probe

MANILA, Philippines -  Retired Senior Police Officer 3 Arthur Lascañas, a self-confessed leader of the so-called Davao death squad (DDS) who implicated President Duterte in summary killings, failed to return to the country last Saturday as planned, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) bared as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) started its probe on his alleged crimes.

Lascañas left the country with his family on April 8 supposedly for a vacation in Singapore. He was scheduled to return on April 22, as stated in his plane ticket, but no Lascañas arrived in any of the airports over the weekend.

“There’s no record of the arrival of Mr. Lascañas on Saturday,” BI spokesperson Ma. Antonette Mangrobang said in a text message after checking with the immigration database.

In a television interview, Lascañas said he had received threats and was scared for his safety and that of his family after his statements against Duterte, whom he accused of being behind the DDS.

The retired policeman claimed he would face criminal investigation if summoned by authorities.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II explained that Lascañas was allowed to leave due to absence of cases or a hold departure order against him.

Aguirre believed, however, that such flight could be a move to evade prosecution.

“He’s probably afraid of prosecution, just like what happened to Matobato,” Aguirre stressed, referring to Edgar Matobato, the other self-confessed DDS member who also tagged Duterte in the killings.

Aguirre also suspected that the “handlers” of Lascañas hid him so as not to lose another witness that they could use to attack the President.

He, however, warned that if Lascañas would not return and cases are filed against him, his protectors could also be chased by the government, be investigated and held liable under the law.

“We have to know who is funding this trip. If there are people harboring him, that is criminal,” Aguirre admonished.

The Department of Justice chief has already ordered the NBI to look into the confessions made by Lascañas to check their veracity, as well as his criminal liabilities.

During the Senate inquiry last year on extrajudicial killings, the former police officer denied the claim of Matobato about the existence of the death squad and the killings the group allegedly carried out on orders of Duterte when he was still mayor of Davao City.

But in his latest testimony, he recanted and said the death squad had indeed existed. He confessed being part of the death squad and claimed that Duterte paid them as much as P100,000 for each drug suspect liquidated.

Lascañas also implicated Duterte’s son Paolo — now Davao City vice mayor — in the killings.

Aguirre had said earlier that the retired policeman could be held liable for perjury over his recantation.

The justice department chief reiterated that the allegations against Duterte involving the DDS were already investigated by the Commission on Human Rights in 2009 under then chair Leila de Lima – now a senator – but nothing came out of it and no cases were filed in court.