MANILA – A witness who allegedly worked as an assassin for then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte claimed Thursday that the tough-talking leader ordered the killing of the boyfriend of the now president's own sister.

Testifying before the Senate Justice and Human Rights Committee headed by Senator Leila de Lima, Edgar Matobato, a self-proclaimed former member of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), said that the boyfriend of Duterte’s sister, Jocelyn, as well as a fixer at the Land Transportation Office (LTO), were among the group’s many victims.

Matobato said he killed Jocelyn’s lover in an ambush while he was in the company of several policemen and henchmen, including Sonny Buenventura, a long-time security aide of Duterte.

“Sinundan namin ang taxi doon sa Jacinto Street ng Davao City. So nadukot namin, ako nga ang umano ng baril. [Sabi ko] ‘Huwag kang kumilos. Pulis ito.’”

(We followed his taxi along Jacinto Street in Davao City. We kidnapped him and I pointed a gun at him. I told him ‘Don’t move. I am a policeman.')

He said, on orders of their principals, they chopped up the boyfriend’s body.

“Ang opisyal ma’am hindi pumapayag na buo ang katawan. Para hindi mare-cover o makilala siguro. Iyun ang pagkaintindi ko,” he said.

(The officials ma’am, they wanted the bodies chopped up maybe to prevent the victims from being recognized. That’s how I understood it.)

Meanwhile, Matobato testified that Duterte also ordered the killing of an LTO fixer in 2013.

“Pumunta siya (Duterte) sa office namin, at sinabi na pickupin ang mga tao na iyan. Pinalabas na holdaper so pagkakuha, dinala namin sa, pinasok sa FX pagkatapos dinala namin sa subdivision naman. Doon namin tinapon, pinatay doon,” he said.

(He went to our office and told us to kidnap this person and asked us to make it appear he was a robber. We brought the victim to a subdivision where we killed him.)

“Hindi namin kilala kasi biglaan pirme ang mga utos kasi ang dami naming pinapatay pero hindi namin nalalaman ang mga pangalan basta ang details lang sa tao, ano ang suot, sombrero, kulay ng T-shirt, kulay ng pantalon, sapatos.”

(We don’t know the names because the kill orders come fast and they were too many. We just knew details such as the physical features of the target, their clothes, shoes.)

The hearing is part of the Senate Justice and Human Rights Committee's hearing on extra-judicial killings in the Duterte administration's war on drugs.