Witness says Philippine president ordered killings

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre described Matobato's testimony as "lies, fabrications and a product of a fertile and a coached imagination".

Duterte's spokesman, Martin Andanar, has rejected Matobato's claims, saying he doubts the then-mayor could have ordered the killing of 1,000 people.

As we've reported, Davao City was notoriously risky, once known as the Philippines' "murder capital".

He said the country's Commission on Human Rights had failed to even prove the existence of the Davao Death Squad.

Another was a radio commentator, Jun Pala, who was critical of Duterte and was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen while walking home in 2003.

Matobato claimed that 5 mayors, including then-mayor Duterte, "plotted" the operation to kill Barbasal.

Former DCPO director Senior Superintendent Vicente Danao Jr., who was also tagged by Matobato to be behind in some killings and allegedly tortured him, belied knowing the witness.

In short, the testimony on Thursday is hardly the first allegation tying Duterte to the killings. Nograles reportedly ran twice and lost to Duterte in the 1992 and 1998 mayoral polls.

The witness claimed he is testifying against Duterte to atone for his sins.

In a televised committee heading at the Philippines Senate on Thursday, former militia member Edgar Matobato was called to give evidence. Mr Duterte, mayor of the southern city of Davao at the time, then arrived on the scene, Mr Matobato said.

"Our job was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers", Matobato said under oath on national television.

A suspect arrested in Butuan City was brought to Davao City, but Matobato said that the suspect was salvaged by a certain Major Lao before they even reached the city center.

He said some bodies were tossed in the sea, cut up and concealed in a quarry or - in one case - fed to a crocodile, Reuters reports.

A confrontation at a roadblock with a justice department official in 1993 generated into a shootout.

DCPO spokesperson Senior Inspector Catherine dela Rey said she checked with the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) office and found no Edgar Matobato has been with the division that has been dissolved a long time ago.

Four bodyguards working for one of Mr Duterte's political rivals were also abducted and taken to the island of Samalin in 2010, Mr Matobato, where they were put in sand and strangled to death.

But Mr Duterte has accused Ms de Lima of being involved in illegal drugs - something she has denied.

Mr Duterte's spokesman said the allegations had already been investigated without charges being filed while his son Paolo Duterte called the testimony "mere hearsay" of "a madman".

Duterte is now facing global fire for his administration's hardline stance on drug users. Leila de Lima, a fierce critic of Duterte.

Duterte assumed the presidency in June, winning the election by promising to eradicate the Philippines' pervasive drug problem.

"He emphasized his message in his final campaign speech".

"We must exhaust all efforts to get to the truth with due regard for our democratic processes and the rule of law", Robredo said. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. "We killed people nearly on a daily basis", said Mr Matobato.

But Robredo brushed aside Cayetano's accusation that the Senate hearing over the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country was part of the Liberal Party's plan to oust Duterte. Police claim they only shoot suspected drug dealers or users in self-defense, reporter Michael Sullivan explains.

" 'Everyone knows who the drug dealers are, ' she said". Since the president took office earlier this year, over 2,000 suspected drug criminals have been killed, some by local enforcers and others by vigilante groups.