Former President Rodrigo Duterte allegedly ordered the killing of three Chinese nationals who were convicted of drug charges in August 2016, hitman Leopoldo Tan Jr. claimed on Thursday, August 12.
At the second hearing of the four-panel body on Thursday, Tan said Duterte asked him and a certain Fernando Magdadaro to kill Chu Kin Tung, Jackson Lee, and Peter Wang inside the Davao Penal and Prison Farm eight years ago.
Both Tan and Magdadaro are presently currently detained at the Philippine Military Academy’s Support Company.
Tan also claimed that that Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) official Supt. Gerardo Padilla spoke to someone over the phone after the supposed kill order was executed, and that person even congratulated the jail officer.
Tan identified the person who congratulated Padilla as former President Duterte.
“While we were walking to the Investigation Section, Supt. Padilla’s phone rang. I saw that he pressed his cellphone. I heard the person who called Supt. Padilla say ‘Congrats Supt. Padilla, job well done. But what was done was brutal, they turned it into blood soup’,” Tan said, reading his sworn affidavit before the quad-committee.
“I knew that Supt. Padilla was talking to President Duterte because his voice is familiar. After the call, Supt. Padilla told his colleagues: ‘The President called, he congratulated me.’ Because of what Supt. Padilla said, I was even more convinced that it was President Duterte who called,” Tan added.
Tan stated that they were promised money and freedom in exchange for killing three Chinese nationals. According to Tan, he and Magdadaro were already inmates when they were allegedly hired to carry out the killings.
Magdadaro expressed his disappointment that the police officials who commissioned them for the killing job failed to fulfill their promise of freedom.
“Hinintay namin yung pinangakong paglaya namin pero hanggang ngayon kami pa rin ay nasa loob ng kulungan. Ibinibigay ko itong salaysay na ito dahil sa galit ko sa kanila,” Magdadaro said.
“Ang lahat ng sinabi ko sa salaysay na ito ay pawang katotohanan lamang at walang sino man ang nagturo o nagimpluwensya at alam ko rin na maaring gamitin laban or pabor sa akin,” Magdadaro added.
House Senior Deputy Speaker Dong Gonzales of Pampanga then moved to invite former President Rodrigo Duterte to the probe “to shed light on this matter.” Gonzales’ motion was approved without objection.
This isn’t the first time a Duterte has been mentioned in the quad-committee hearings. During the initial hearing on August 16, former Bureau of Customs (BOC) intelligence officer Jimmy Guban alleged that in 2018, Undersecretary Benny Antiporda sent emissaries to warn him that he would be killed if he implicated Davao City 1st District Rep. Duterte, Atty. Manases Carpio—husband of Vice President Sara Duterte—and former economic adviser Michael Yang in the 2018 illegal drug shipment.
The former President and other high-ranking officials from his administration are already under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity related to systematic drug war deaths during police operations under his tenure. (TCSP)
