President Rodrigo Duterte presides over the 6th Cabinet Meeting in Malacañan’s State Dining Room on September 14. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) — Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar on Thursday said President Rodrigo Duterte is not capable of the accusations against him by a Senate witness on allegedl extrajudicial killings.
“I don’t think he is capable of giving those orders,” Andanar said at a briefing in Malacañang.
Andanar was referring to witness Edgar Motabato’s statement that Duterte ordered killing Muslims and bombing of a mosque sometime in 1993.
Motabato said these orders were made to retaliate the bombing of Davao Cathedral in 1993. He also claimed that he was part of the seven-member Lambada group formed in 1988. The group was later known as the Davao Death Squad, he said.
But Andanar pointed out that even the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) already failed to prove the existence of the said death squad.
The Communications Secretary also said that the Palace will release an official statement on the matter once the investigation is done.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III will be consulted on the matter