http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/world/asia/philippines-duterte-edgar-matobato-hitman.html 2016-09-22 16:42:04 Professed Hit Man Tempers Claims of Rodrigo Duterte’s Role in Philippine Killings Facing lawmakers for a second time, Edgar Matobato backed off earlier assertions that the president had personally ordered extrajudicial killings. === MANILA — A professed hit man who But the self-described hit man, Edgar Matobato, who said he killed about 50 people as a member of a death squad in The televised hearing appeared to be part of an effort by Duterte supporters to discredit testimony that Mr. Matobato gave the committee last week, as well as to impeach the credibility of the former leader of that committee, Senator Leila de Lima. Mr. Matobato’s earlier testimony, which has not been independently verified or corroborated elsewhere, was the first evidence to directly tie Mr. Duterte to the killings. Mr. Matobato, 57, was called as a witness by Ms. de Lima, who oversaw the committee until At times, Mr. Matobato, who has a first-grade education, admitted to being perplexed by the barrage of questions from skilled lawyers on the committee. “I am confused, sir,” he told Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, a Duterte backer. Under Mr. Cayetano’s cross-examination, Mr. Matobato acknowledged that in specific cases the orders to carry out killings did not come directly from Mr. Duterte. And he admitted that he did not hear Mr. Duterte personally order an execution. But he repeated his testimony from last week that he saw Mr. Duterte give orders to the commander of the death squad, a police officer, who then passed on the orders to members of the squad. Mr. Matobato reiterated that he was a ghost employee of Davao City who was paid for his death squad activities but did not show up in city personnel records. After more than four hours of testimony, several senators expressed skepticism about his credibility. Senator Richard Gordon, the new committee chairman, called him “a witness who appears to have a spotty memory.” Mr. Cayetano issued a statement saying that Mr. Matobato’s assertions of Mr. Duterte’s involvement turned out under questioning to be mere “assumptions.” “Just an observation, the witness tends to change his testimony,” he said. The drama surrounding Mr. Matobato and Ms. de Lima has riveted the country, with each twist and turn broadcast live on national television. The House Justice Committee held two hearings this week in which nine prison inmates accused Ms. de Lima of involvement in the illegal drug trade while she served as justice secretary, the position she held before she was elected to the Senate this year. The witnesses said that Ms. de Lima had solicited payments from drug lords imprisoned at New Bilibid Prison for use in her Senate campaign, and that they had paid her more than $1 million in exchange for special privileges. They also said that she had allowed them to bring drugs and other contraband into the prison. Asked why they were testifying, they all said they were giving statements of their own accord. In an unusual move, the House committee turned most of the questioning over to Vitaliano Aguirre II, the current justice secretary and a Duterte appointee. Mr. Aguirre told the committee on Wednesday that he would pursue a criminal complaint against Ms. de Lima. Ms. de Lima denies having received any payoffs. At a news conference on Thursday, she asserted that the witnesses were paid or blackmailed to testify against her. “These are really, really unfair, unfounded insinuations,” she said. She also accused the committee of violating her right to privacy by allowing one witness to read her cellphone number and home address during the televised hearing. Since then, she said she had received nearly 2,000 offensive and threatening messages and had moved out of her home. “The attacks against me are getting worse every day,” she said. “I am the subject of persecution. The truth is I am not safe. I don’t feel safe.” Apart from his testimony last week, Mr. Matobato said in a Mr. Matobato said he had come forward because his conscience bothered him. When he tried to retire from the death squad three years ago, he said, he was seized by his colleagues and tortured before they eventually released him. Mr. Duterte said this week that Mr. Matobato’s statements were lies, and that Ms. de Lima could be guilty of suborning perjury. Ms. de Lima has said that her hearings had established “an uncanny similarity” between killings committed by the Davao Death Squad and those that have happened nationwide since Mr. Duterte took office in June. Philippine officials say Mr. Duterte’s campaign against drugs and crime has resulted in more than 3,000 deaths. About half those people were killed by the police and hundreds by vigilantes, the police say. However, the figure includes all unsolved murders, including many that may not be drug-related.