MANILA, Philippines – In an extraordinary hearing in the Philippine Senate, a witness claimed President Rodrigo Duterte paid him to carry out executions that involved, among other things, feeding a body to a crocodile, chopping up corpses and murder by packing tape. Matobato said he spent years working as part of the so-called “Davao Death Squad,” a group of killers associated with the president’s time as a city mayor. Matobato’s claims, which have not been independently confirmed, linked President Duterte and his son, Paolo Duterte, to a list of crimes worthy of a gangster film. During this year’s campaign Duterte did not shy away from his “death squad” moniker, promising he would kill 100,000 criminals in six months. Duterte initially seemed to urge the killers on, but has more recently tried to distance himself from extra-judicial killings and summary executions.

Source: National Post September 15, 2016 13:52 UTC