Edgar Matobato’s recent interview with Hanna Beech of the New York Times revealed very disturbing details—how he and his Davao Death Squad (DDS) made sashimi and barbecue out of the extremities of a newly-murdered victim, a fine “finger food” to accompany cheap liquor in one of Davao City’s killing fields.
Remember the Manero brothers of Tulunan, North Cotabato, who murdered Fr. Tullio Favali and ate his brains on April 11, 1985? As members of the Ilaga, the brothers Norberto, Edilberto and Elpidio were used by the Marcos dictatorship as “force multipliers not only against Muslim secessionists but also against New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas.
Ilaga members wore amulets and other talismans in their bitter fight with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and its founder, Feliciano Luces, also known as Commander Toothpick, was said to be “invincible.” Part of the Ilaga ritual was to feast on the remains of their victims to complete the destruction of their enemies. This is similar to mortuary cannibalism, when the bereaved partake of the muscles of the deceased for the “transference” of his traits to them, a practice in the Amazon until the 1960s as well as in Papua New Guinea. In the case of the Ilaga, beheading Muslim secessionists was as guarantee they would not reach Paradise in one piece. Eating their vanquished foes would be a bonus as the human body contains 125,000 calories.
Yet apart from cannibalism, Matobato said the DDS hitmen also raped their victims an cited the case of three ladies who were kidnapped, raped inside a ban, and then killed, their remains chopped up and wrapped in duct tape. Matobato admitted killing at least 50 people when he was a lowly-paid soldier of the DDS. He also alleged that he had seen Rodrigo Duterte kill at least eight people. Arturo Lascanas, who repudiated his Senate testimony absolving Duterte, confirmed that Matobato was telling the truth. Five other DDS operatives reached by the New York Times vouched for the veracity of Matobato’s claim. Matobato apparently eluded Duterte’s dragnet as he literally flew the coop, flying first to Abu Dhabi and then hopping off to another country using a false name on his Philippine passport.
At last two other witnesses against Duterte have been secured by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), where the unlamented ex-president is accused of committing crimes against humanity and for the murders of 30,000 people in the 2016-2022 “war on drugs.” Duterte will also face the music for the slaughter of at 3,000 people in Davao City during his family’s dynastic rule. Catholic priests and nuns, Protestant ministers, and human rights advocates worked incessantly from the 1980s to prove that Duterte masterminded and promoted the culture of impunity that pervades in the country. One priest was hounded by the Duterte dynasty from Mindanao to Cebu while officials of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), from then chairwoman Leila de Lima were surveilled, harasse,d and imprisoned.
Indeed, it would be a headache for the Dutertes to hear Matobato testify about the murders, the reward money doled out, and even the source of the dirty, stinking moola, like “pera sa basura” and cash from Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIFs), more than P2-billion to be accurate, being funneled to give funeral parlors and memorial parks some good business. Duterte Sr. and Duterte Jr. are both lawyers but don’t care about human rights, ethics, and graft. In effect, both of them consider themselves the law, like the malignant narcissist Donald Trump, and they have no truck with honesty, sincerity, and respect for the truth and justice.
With the Dutertes bereft of common sense and now defanged, they may now only rely on their dwindling zealots to muster their bid to unleash what they described as another “people power revolution.” Here again, is one family that benefited immensely from bureaucrat capitalism threatening to unleash their murderers, cannibals, and rapists on the Filipino people. A survey of their troll army’s posts would reveal just how stupid their financiers are. They misrepresent marches and rallies by genuine activists as their own, repeat nauseating videos about Sara and her voodoo logic about “conditional threats,” her evidence-free claims of being the target of an assassination plot, and the entire investigation about her proven waste of tax money was meant to “ruin her reputation.” You cannot ruin something that doesn’t exist.
In the end, cannibalism itself may visit the increasingly chaotic Duterte movement, whatever it is. The funds’ pipeline must continue to pump cash into the Duterte dream of ousting the Marcos Jr. government from now until 2028, when Duterte Jr. is expected to run for president. The logical sources, of course, are the Southern China mafia, which was into the Pharmally scam, the POGO operations, and the shabu trade (Pinoy do not manufacture shabu; the Chinese chemists do) as well as Chinese corporations that benefited from deals signed, sealed and delivered during the Duterte Sr. regime. Don’t count out Xi Jinping and the Chinese foreign ministry. They can help make his dream of making the Philippines a Chinese province come true.
