The Making of Edgar Matobato
Edgar Matobato at the Dambana ng Paghilom, a memorial to extrajudicial killings at the La Loma Catholic Cemetery. Before he fled the Philippines, he…
The Making of Edgar Matobato
Edgar Matobato at the Dambana ng Paghilom, a memorial to extrajudicial killings at the La Loma Catholic Cemetery. Before he fled the Philippines, he met with families of EJK victims and promised to help give them closure. Photo by Vincent Go IT IS A WONDER Edgar Matobato is still alive. A confessed assassin for the Davao Death Squad, he was the first to go public about the killings allegedly ordered by former President Rodrigo Duterte. Since 2014, when he was detained and brutally tortured by his former comrades, Matobato has been on the run. For ten years, an unlikely network kept him alive: Catholic clergy who believed in his redemption, former military mutineers who shielded him, and, at one point, the security detail of an outgoing president. Together, they helped him evade the powerful forces intent on silencing him. Today, Matobato is out of the country, having fled with the help of two priests, a journalist, and a photographer from The New York Times . With his wife at hi...
