Manila: The recent retraction made by a key resource person in investigations into the existence of the so-called Davao Death Squad only serves to erode the integrity of the Senate and make a mockery of the institution, a Senator said.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said the move by retired Senior Police Officer 3 Arturo Lascanas to retract his earlier statements denying the existed of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), makes a mockery of the Senate as an institution and a “vanguard of democracy.”

“He lied to all of us. And to come down now and say, ‘Pretty please second chance.’ No! You already stained the dignity of the Senate by lying and we do not want that dignity, that respect that must be accorded this body, to all the 24 constituting the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines, be stained,” he said.

Last year, Gordon’s Senate Justice and Rights panel conducted an investigation into the rampant killings in the country. The probe was carried out at the behest of Senator Leila de Lima who had accused incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte of ordering extrajudicial killings when he was mayor of Davao City several years ago.

At the October 3, 2016 hearing by the panel, Lascanas, then a senior non-commissioned police officer who was known as one of the “most powerful policemen in Davao,” had flatly denied allegations of his involvement in the DDS.

But at a press conference organised Senator De Lila at the Senate last week, Lascanas claimed he had only denied the existence of the DDS because he was “pressured into lying under oath.”

Gordon pointed out that conducting an investigation into the recent retraction of earlier statements by Lascanas, would only stain the integrity and dignity of the Senate as an institution.

Gordon stressed that no one should be allowed to trifle with the Senate as it would set a bad precedent in all investigations conducted by the Senate committees.

The Senator lamented that it will be to the public’s detriment if the committees will accept damaged witnesses whose testimonies would be dubious.

“It is easy to lie before the Senate. You can always hold a ‘press conference’ at the chamber’s premises itself to get a forum. However, how will this affect or ongoing investigations into the extrajudicial killings? What will happen to the Senate which is one of the recourse of people seeking justice?” the Senator said.

During the press conference that he called at the Senate last week, Lascanas confirmed that the DDS does exist while also claiming that President Rodrigo Duterte, then Davao City mayor, paid between P20,000 and P100,000 for executing suspected criminals in the city.

De Lima on the other hand, was ordered to be arrested by a court last Thursday on allegations that she was taking money from drug syndicates inside the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.