SEPTUAGENARIAN NOTES: REWARD SYSTEM EXISTS IN DUTERTE'S WAR ON DRUGS

BACKGROUND: ACTUALLY, it was not Col. Royina Garma, who revealed for the first time the reward system in the bloody but ill-fated war on drugs of Duterte. SPO4 Arturo Lascanas did it first. Lascanas revealed that reward system in his 188-page supplemental affidavit he issued in 2020. Garma merely corroborated what Lascanas revealed in 2020. Lascanas stands to be the ICC's "star witness" against Gongdi and his ilk in the crimes against humanity charges filed before the ICC.

In my first book, 'KILL KILL KILL Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines; Crimes Against Humanity v. Rodrigo Duterte Et Al," I discussed what Lascanas claimed the reward system in Duterte's war on drugs. I mentioned this issue on Chapter 7 of the book and the chapter is titled "Hitman's Confessions." The hitman is Lascanas, the Duterte Death Squad (DDS) insider who turned against Duterte. Excerpts:

WHO IS ARTURO LASCANAS?

 

In his expanded affidavit, Lascanas introduced himself as “a retired police officer who was a member of the Philippine National Police from April 16, 1982 to December 16, 2016,” or a total of 38 years. He claimed to have been assigned to the Davao City Mayor’s Unit occupied by then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who sported nicknames and call signs. “I was one of the original members of the Davao Death Squad that was founded by then Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte on 1988,” he said.

 

Lascanas named the “original” DDS members: Police Chief Inspector (Major) Ernesto Macasaet; Senior Police Officer 4 Desiderio “Dick” Cloribel; Senior Police Officer4 Fulgencio Pavo; Senior Police Officer4 Bienvenido Laud; Senior Police Officer3 Jeremias Baguhin; Senior Police Officer2 Teodoro Paguidopon; Police Officer3 Arturo Bariquit Lascanas; and. Police Officer1 Jun Naresma.  They were all regular members of the Davao City Police Office assigned to Duterte’s office called “Mayor’s Unit,” which was later called “Anti-Crime Task Force,” Lascanas said.

 

Lascanas narrated: “At the early stages of the ‘Duterte Death Squad,’ during the first term of Mayor RRD, we, the regular members of the Anti-Crime Task Force Office or Mayor’s Unit-Davao City Police Office – Philippine National Police, were handpicked by Mayor RRD and Major Ernesto Macasaet, as members of a ‘Death Squad.’ We were the hitmen of the newly-founded ‘Duterte Death Squad,’ later known as the Davao Death Squad or DDS. We were not required to wear our police uniforms.

 

He said: “At first, during the time of the Ant-Crime Taskforce, Mayor RRD personally gave us P10,000 cash money as our reward, which was later increased to P15,000, then to P20,000 for every person killed by our group. These rewards were, later on, coursed through Major Macasaet and Sonny Buenaventura. Although, sometimes, Mayor Duterte would still give us personally the reward.”

 

According to Lascanas, Duterte gave them “reward money from P100,000 to P300,000 cash money as the minimum, up to P500,000 and to millions of pesos reward money, the maximum, depending on the status of the target, his social standing, and Duterte’s intensity of anger on the target individual. Aside from being given to us, these rewards were later on coursed (at first,

anti-crime task force. Mayor RRD personally and Macasaet. Eventually Sonny and

Macasaet. After 2004, Sonny Buenaventura. Minsan si Mayor pa rin sa extra, like

Jun Pala).”

 

‘MULTIPLIERS.’ According to his 2020 expanded affidavit, the number of DDS members grew over the years, as  they included police personnel from the Anti-Crime Task Force and “civilian force multipliers,” most of whom were former New People’s Army members. They included the following: Cris Lanay; Alias “Andong”; Alias “Jopet” and his brother “Gilbert”; brothers Bebot and Larry Manriquez; brothers Tony and Bebot Guinang; Edgar Matobato; Ludy Paguidopon; alias “Boboy Maldito”;  Alejandro Casas alias “Totpik”; Ferdinand Pantinople; Boy Pondoyo and alias Boy TsaTsa.

 

Also included were: alias “Insik”; alias “Yak-Yak,” nephew of SPO4 Fulgencio Pavo; Gerry Trocio; alias “Alex”; Alvin Laud, civilian son of SPO4 Ben Laud; dela Cerna brothers (Ayan, Yoyin, and Jong-Jong) and their stepfather alias “Long Hair,” who were force multipliers during Duterte’s  second term as mayor of Davao City; Duhilag brothers (Roland, Yan-Yan, Alan, and Valentin), who became our force multipliers/hitmen during the third term of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. They were handled by PO4 Ben Laud and SPO1 Jim Abragan Tan. SPO1 Jim Tan, who  also managed the “Mandug mass graves” in Barangay Mandug, where the Duhilag brothers reside. Lascanas said the force multipliers/hitmen received monthly salary and allowance from Duerte’s office. Their category was “contractual employee.” For every person they killed, they received P3,000 or P5,000 from their police handlers. The reward money came from Duterte.

 

In his expanded affidavit, Lascanas alleged that Duterte was a “covert member” of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA) and that he was part of the so-called “People’s Court” in Davao City, during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, or that “dark period,” when several members of the military and pro-government civilians and assets fell victims to summary executions in Davao City. This was an allegation that has remained uncorroborated, although a number of pictures were splashed on social media where he attended CPP-NPA affairs in an undisclosed place in Davao City..

 

Moreover, Lascanas claimed that after his reelection in 2001 (from a one-term stint in Congress from 1998-2001), the Heinous Crime Task Group Office was created. Duterte, according to Lascanas, “secretly” ordered, through Sonny Buenaventura and Bong Go, select Police Station Commanders in Davao City, to create and organize their own death squads and “to lethally foil and neutralize the alleged growing numbers of shabu users and pushers in Davao City.” This led to the birth of then Sr. Supt. Bato Dela Rosa’s “Operation Tokhang” campaign in Davao City. The Duterte Death Squad grew in number and this led to a bigger peace and order and intelligence funds.

 

Lascanas identified the members of the Heinous Crime Task Group, which functioned as part of the Davao-City PNP death squad from 2001 to 2016. They were; Inspector Fulgencio “Boy” Pavo, who functioned as the Task Group Commander; SPO3 Reynaldo Capute, Chief Investigator; SPO3 Simplicio Sagarino, Office/Field Investigator; SPO2 Antonio Balolong, Office/Field Investigator; SPO1 Arturo Bariquit Lascanas, Team Leader Field OPN; SPO1 Jim A. Tan, Office/Field Investigator; SPO4 Ben Laud, Team Leader, Special Operations; and SPO1, Ben Furog, Office/Field Investigator.

 

Other members: PO3 Jun Naresma – Intel-Field Operations; PO3 Jun Cabalinan, Office/Field Investigator; PO2 Arnold Dechavez, Intel- Field Operations; PO2 Rizalino Aquino, Intel- Field Operations; PO2 Jovencio Jumawan, Intel- Field Operations; PO2 Enrique “Jun” Ayao, Intel- Field Operations; PO1 Tata Miguellano, Women’s Desk/Finance Officer; PO1 Ronald Lao, Intel- Field Operations; PO1 Jay Francia, Intel- Field Operations; PO1 Reynante Medina, Intel- Field Operations; Sr. Inspector Dionisio Abude Jr., Task Group Commander vice retired Sr. Inspector Fulgencio Pavo.

 

POLICE HANDLERS. The police officers, who functioned as members of those death squads, did not limit themselves to their police functions. They were also the police handlers of the civilian assassins, whom they called “force multipliers” of the defunct Anti-Crime Task Force, reassigned to the Heinous Crime Task Group. SPO1 Jim Abragan Tan was the police handler of the group of Duhilag brothers in Barangay Mandug, Davao City, and the so-called “imported” players based outside of Davao City. They were the civilian component, or force multipliers in the Heinous Crime Task Group Office.

 

Lascanas claimed he was the police handler of force multipliers like Edgar Matobato, Alejandro “Totpik” Casas, Rolando Singuran alias “Miguel”, and Jimmy Duran. “Former Constabulary soldiers ‘Intelligence operatives’ Technical Sergeants LoLoy Lopez, Billy Sarabia, and Constable 1st Class Jun Villar alias “Karaw” were secretly under my care as their policeman- handler, on orders of Duterte. They received a monthly allowance of P10,000 cash money from Duterte through me. They were tasked to provide Duterte with vital intelligence information on matters of organized crime groups and his non-allies, who would wish to enter Davao City.”