Witness says Philippine president ordered killings of 1000

On September 15, 2016, an admitted former "hit man", Edgar Matobato, testified at a Philippine Senate hearing about the alleged killings of about 1,000 people in Davao City involving Duterte, who was the city's mayor for more than two decades.

Matobato also described how, in one 1993 mission, Duterte had killed an agent from the justice department's National Bureau of Investigation who had set up a road block.

He said that prompted his colleagues to implicate him criminally in one killing to silence him.

Matubato said the group was led by SPO4 Arthur Lascañas, who was described then as the "most powerful" police officer in the city that even generals took orders from him. "He emptied two Uzi (submachine gun) magazines on him".

'I don't think he's capable of giving a directive like that, ' Duterte spokesman Martin Andanar said. He also added that some of the targets of the Philippine president were not criminals but Duterte's political opponents.

He explained: 'Our job was to kill criminals, rapists, pushers, and snatchers.

Duterte is offering addicts the opportunity to be interned in a rehabilitation facility if they play no role in trafficking drugs, but has promised to "kill" anyone who does not surrender to police, trafficker or addict.

Rights groups have long accused Mr Duterte of involvement in death squads while he was mayor of Davao city.

He also said Duterte had ordered the bombing of a mosque in retaliation for an attack on Davao Cathedral in 1993.

Hundreds of people have died amid President Duterte's war on drugs and it is likely thousands more will be killed before the campaign ends.

The recent killings of suspected drug dealers have sparked concerns in the Philippines and among United Nations and U.S. officials, including president Barack Obama, who have urged Mr Duterte's government to stop the killings and ensure his anti-drug war respected human rights and complied with the law. Matobato said the group kidnapped Makdum and chopped him to pieces. "We killed people nearly on a daily basis", he said.

The removal of state security for the individuals, which included mayors and congressmen, was a response to a violent episode in the town of Albuera, where Duterte ordered police to arrest Mayor Rolando Espinosa, but were forced to kill six of his security guards in a raid.

He later retracted that statement in a press conference, telling reporters there were "no Davao death squads", but the allegations remain and numerous local and global human rights groups have repeatedly criticized his record.

Victims would be shot or strangled, he said, with some disembowelled and dumped into the sea so fish could eat them, or in one case fed to a crocodile, Matobato said.

"They were killed like chickens", he told the televised hearing, during which alleged that the president's eldest son and current Davao vice mayor, Paolo Duterte, was a drug user who ordered the death of a hotel owner in 2014.

Davao police Regional Director Chief Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan said he could not give further statement on the issue as he has yet to validate whether Matobato's testimony is accurate.

He said he had chose to give evidence because "I wanted the people to know so the killings will stop".

She said she was "offended by Senator Cayetano's accusation that the Liberal Party is plotting to oust the President and that I will be the intended beneficiary of this plan". "In my book, he's not a credible witness", Lacson said in a mix of English and Filipino, noting that the witness seemed to be not as involved as he claimed to be.

He told the Senate panel he went from a witness protection programme into hiding when Mr Duterte became president, fearing for his life.