A retired agrarian reform adjudicator sees Senate witness
Edgar Matobato on TV: 'I clearly remember his eyes, nose, and mouth, every
attribute, including his ball cap. He is the same person who tried to kill me
on October 23, 2014'.
DAVAO
CITY, Philippines – A retired agrarian reform adjudicator from the Davao Region
identified Edgar Matobato as the gunman who ambushed him 2014, after seeing the suspect appear in a televised
Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings on Thursday, September 15.
“Nakuratan ko, wala ko nakatingog (I
was shocked, I was speechless),” lawyer Abeto Salcedo Jr told Rappler on
Friday, September 16.
“I clearly remember his eyes, nose, and mouth, every
attribute, including his ball cap. He is the same person who tried to kill me
on October 23, 2014,” he said.
Salcedo said he is consulting his lawyer
about possibly filing a case against Matobato.
Matobato testified on Thursday during a Senate committee's 3rd
hearing on extrajudicial killings allegedly related to the Duterte
administration's anti-drug campaign. Saying he was part of the Davao Death
Squad that is being linked to Duterte, he alleged that the President, when he
was still Davao City mayor, ordered criminals and enemies killed.
The date of Salcedo's ambush, if
indeed it was carried out by Matobato, would be an important point in the
current Senate probe, where he is a key witness by Senator Leila de Lima. The
incident in Digos was on October 23, 2014. Matobato was supposed to have beenadmitted
to the Witness Protection Program of
the Department of Justice, then under De Lima, in September 2014.
Salcedo, at the time an adjudicator at
the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) XI, was aboard the
pickup truck of the department when he heard gun fire at the junction of
Bonifacio Street and Bago Aplaya in Digos City, Davao del Sur. He was on front
seat beside the driver.
“Pagliko namo sa kanto Bonifacio,
buto-buto na, nahunong among sakyanan nidagan na akong driver. this gunman
nidoul siya sa ako gipaspasan ko ug pusil, kay half open man ang passenger
window sa front seat. Gisulod niya iya kamot ug iya ko gipusil, naghigda ko sa
sulod sa sakyana. Sigehan naku ug sipa ang portahan hangtud milagrong ana-abri
ug nakadagan ko balik sa among opisina kay doul ra man mga 30 to 50 meters ra,
maskin daghan na ko ug igo sa bala,” Salcedo recalled.
(When we were at the junction of
Bonifacio, I heard a series of gunfire, our vehicle stopped, and my driver ran
away. This gunman went to the car and fired shots at me because the window of
the front seat was half open. He put his hand in and fired at me while I was
lying inside. I kept kicking the door until it miraculously opened. I had
gunshot wounds, but I managed to ran back to our office, which is just about 30
or 50 meters away from the ambush site.)
Salcedo said he sustained 6 gunshot
wounds, and 3 bullets are still inside his body – one in his left knee, one in
his large intestine, and the 3rd bullet in his spinal cord.
“I can clearly remember his face
because he was so close to me, only the glass window separated us,” Salcedo
said in the vernacular.
Salcedo said he was informed that the
group who tried to kill him were hired guns, who were promised P400,000 for the
operations. He hinted that the motive could be a land
dispute.
Sources in the province said an
official at the time had been pressuring Salcedo to reverse a ruling over a
huge tract of land that was being eyed for a venture with foreign investors.
Salcedo retired from office in January
2016. – Rappler.com
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