Lascañas claims he killed 200 for Davao Death Squad

MANILA, Philippines — Retired police officer Arthur Lascañas claimed on Monday that he personally executed around 200 people as a member of a hit squad under then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Lascañas, who claims he is one of the leaders of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), said that he has killed around 300 people, 200 of whom were eliminated when he became a members of the DDS.

“Kung sa DDS lang po, start with 1989, sabihin nalang natin almost 200,” he answered when asked by Sen. Grace Poe about the number of people he personally killed.

Lascañas, who admitted to lying under oath when he first testified before a Senate committee last year, said that he came clean because he had experienced “spiritual renewal.”

The retired policeman said that he gave false testimony at a Senate hearing last year because he feared for the lives of his family.

He also said that Sonny Buenaventura, a close associate of Duterte, told him to deny the statements of Edgar Matobato, who last year admitted to being a DDS hitman and detailed the killings the group allegedly did on orders of the mayor.

Lascañas said that they received different amounts for the killings they did. The amount of money depended on the individual they liquidated.

In one instance, he claimed to have received millions for one operation.

On top of this, he also received P100,000 a month for 12 years as allowance for being part of the DDS.

Lascañas detailed before the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs how Duterte allegedly ordered the killing of his political and personal enemies.

He said that Duterte ordered the killing of broadcaster Jun Pala because of the latter’s consistent critical views of the mayor on radio.

Lascañas also claimed that Duterte ordered them to bomb several mosques in Davao City in retaliation for the blast that ripped through a Davao cathedral.

The retired policeman however answered in the negative when he was asked by Poe if he had a list of individuals he had killed.

“Hindi ko na po matandaan,” he answered when asked the name of the first individual he killed.

Lascañas also blamed Buenaventura for the spread of vigilante-style killings in the city. He said these cases rose dramatically when Buenaventura ordered each station commander in the city to have his own death squad.

Duterte's allies dismiss Lascañas' claims as part of a supposed a plot by his political opponents to erode the support for the chief executive and his war on drugs.

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa dismissed the claims on the existence of DDS as a creation of the media. Lascañas said on Monday that he had contact with Dela Rosa in at least two operations of their group.

Local and international organizations have criticized the government for the rising number of extralegal killings in the country, which started to dramatically rise upon Duterte’s assumption of the presidency.

Based on latest figures, there have been more than 7,000 drug-related deaths since July 2016.