MANILA, Philippines – At the height of the 2010 national and local elections, two bodies were discovered in separate places near Davao City.

Several media reports on the incident identified the victims as Juliana “Nanay Juling” Noquera and Ronald “Ka Onald” Miranda.

Miranda’s body was discovered by fishermen underwater in Sitio Baybay in Kaputian District, Island City of Samal. The body of Noquera, meanwhile, was recovered when it was washed ashore, half-buried along the coast in Sitio Mamacao, Barangay Kisulad, Sta. Maria, Davao del Sur.

When discovered, the bodies bore striking similarities. Hands were tied with nylon cords, heads covered with packing tape, multiple stab wounds, and hydraulic jacks attached to their bodies – a sign that their killers intended them to stay underwater with no trace of their fate. 

During his privilege speech delivered on Monday, September 26, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV pointed out that this was the same incident supposed former Davao Death Squad (DDS) member Edgar Matobato attributed to President Rodrigo Duterte. (READ: Edgar Matobato: Liar or truth-teller?)

The 57-year-old self-confessed hitman, during a Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings on September 15, said that two people, who were allies of ex-House Speaker Prospero Nograles, were among the individuals killed allegedly upon the orders of then Davao City mayor Duterte. 

Said to be a former Davao City local government employee under the civil security unit (CSU), Matobato said he was present in hundreds of killings during his 25-year stint with the CSU from 1988 to 2013. 

He narrated that members of the Davao Death Squad (DDS) – a group allegedly behind vigilante killings since the late 1980s – kidnapped and killed their victims. The perpetrators of the gruesome murders remain unknown, with little trace of their heinous crimes. Until the bodies surfaced.

Tactical alliance with Nograles

The killings happened during the heated race for the mayoral post between Nograles and Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio. Constrained by term limits then, the elder Rodrigo Duterte ran for vice mayor instead and eventually won.

Arthur Tariman, former national media officer of the rightist Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) party list, told Rappler that Miranda, whose face was tightly wrapped in packing tape and whose body was discovered Holy Week of 2010, was one of the men that retired Army general Jovito Palparan sent to support Nograles during the 2010 elections.

Palparan distrusts Duterte and had strongly criticized him for his close ties to the New People’s Army (NPA) of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Duterte did not deny this and called Palparan “the pathetic former army general who sees things red because of his bloodshot eyes.” (READ: Palparan on Duterte: It’s fake bravery)

Called “The Butcher” because of his aggressive campaign against NPAs under the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Palparan supported Nograles in the local elections to prevent a Duterte victory.

Tariman said ANAD and Nograles entered into a “tactical alliance” against the NPA. Though not directly controlled by Nograles, Tariman said they worked closely together to prevent the NPAs from harassing voters – either preventing them from voting or pressuring them to vote for Duterte.

Palparan’s men and members of ANAD were even holed up at the Royale House Travel Inn, said to be owned by the Nograles family.

“Nagpadala lang ng logistical support pero di kami umaasa sa kanila kasi may sarili kaming kandidatura (They just sent logistical support but we didn’t depend on them since we had our own candidacy to focus on),” Tariman said, referring to the group’s efforts to campaign for ANAD and Palparan.

Nograles, however, refuted his supposed links to the people found dead, saying that there was “not a single incident” where his staff or security personnel was killed. News reports also said the two – Miranda and Noquera – were part of Palparan’s Bantay party-list group.

Noquera, according to Tariman, served as the contact of Palparan’s group in an NPA stronghold in Davao City. She was also identified as “an original leader in Nograles’ camp.”

Rappler repeatedly reached out to Davao City 1st District Representative Karlo Nograles to confirm that Noquera was among his family’s supporters but has yet to receive a reply as of Friday morning, September 30.  

On March 24, 2010, less than two months before the elections, Miranda met with Noquera to discuss ongoing operations in Barangay Dominga.

After their brief meeting, Tariman narrated, the two were abducted by fully-armed men along MacArthur Highway in Calinan District. The abduction of the two was confirmed by several news reports in 2010. 

Tariman added that two other men of retired police director Eduardo Matillano also disappeared on the same day. Their bodies were found on Times Beach, Matina-Aplaya and in Sitio Ladian, Marilog District, Davao City.

A source close to Matillano, who served as Southern Mindanao police director and who once also feuded with Duterte, confirmed to Rappler that the deaths took place.

In an interview with Rappler, Matobato also said there were actually 4 victims. Although he does not know their names, he was sure that 3 were alleged men of either Palparan or Matillano, while one was a woman who was a former barangay official and allegedly worked for Nograles.

Who’s to blame?

The discovery of the bodies heightened the already tense situation in Davao City. Both Nograles and Duterte called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to put the city “under its control” as election-related violence continued. 

In a statement released days after, the NPA in Southern Mindanao “categorically denied any responsibility for the abduction and brutal murder” of Noquera and Miranda, stating that they had no reason to do so.

The group instead accused Palparan of ordering the killings as part of his “fascist black and cheap propaganda stunts” to gain sympathy votes for Nograles against Duterte.

The motivation was “too obvious” – to smear the name of the communist movement.

“Attributing the gruesome crime to the NPA actually serves to perpetuate the lie that the people’s army kills innocent civilians,” the NPA said. “It serves the worn-out Bantay-ANAD Team Nograles yarn that Davao City is a dangerous place under its current mayor…”

Quite unusual considering its anti-communist stance, the “common consensus” within the ANAD party list, according to Tariman, was that it was not the NPA who carried out the killings of Noquera, Miranda, and the two other men.  

Palparan, Tariman said, also showed visible “sadness” over the fate of his men.

“Sa discussions namin after that, ang common consensus namin ay hindi NPA, with the way they were killed,” Tariman said. “Ang NPA kasi di magsasayang ng packing tape, brutal ang NPA pero hindi ganoon. Ibabaon ka kung ibabaon ka.”

(In our discussions after, our common consensus was that the NPA wasn’t responsible, given the way they were killed. The NPA will not waste packing tape. They’re brutal but not that way. They’ll bury you if they have to bury you.)

Duterte, however, denied that he had any involvement with the deaths, adding that he would not have gained anything. Killing, he added, would result in sympathy votes for the other camp.

Matobato’s confession 

During the Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings, Matobato insisted it was Duterte who ordered the killings that took place in 2010. 

He said that after killing the 4, they loaded the bodies on the boat and disposed of them in the sea.

Matobato narrated the same incident in an affidavit he submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in September 2014. He said he was the only civilian (or non-police) in the group that carried out the killings, led by Senior Police Officer 4 Arthur Lascañas.

Inconsistencies, however, mar the narrations of Matobato regarding this specific incident when compared to his previous statements.

Contrary to what he said in the Senate and contrary to news reports on the killings, Matobato said in his affidavit that the killings occurred in 2009, a year earlier.

He also said in his NBI affidavit and in his narration in the Senate that cement hollow blocks were used to make sure the bodies would sink and not float – different from the hydraulic jack that Tariman mentioned and what was shown in alleged photos of Miranda’s body. During the interview with Rappler, Matobato said they used hydraulic jacks.

The heavy weights, however, served the same purpose of submerging the bodies.

But amid conflicting claims, Matobato was consistent in pinning the blame on Duterte. 

Senators pointed to his inconsistencies as proof that his stories were all “kuwentong kutsero (tall tales)”. Six years and two elections later, no person has been convicted or even charged over the abduction and brutal murders in 2010.

Had the bodies not surfaced, no one would have known the horrific murders happened. – with Patricia Evangelista and Chay F. Hofileña/Rappler.com