Former Sen. Leila De Lima on Tuesday linked the “Davao Model”—a term used by former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Royina Garma—to the infamous Davao Death Squad (DDS), which was allegedly formed and led by former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during his tenure as mayor of Davao City.
De Lima, testifying before the House Quad Comm investigating extrajudicial killings (EJKs) linked to the previous administration’s brutal war on drugs, claimed that the reward system used to incentivize killings in Davao City was expanded nationwide during Duterte’s presidency, leading to devastating consequences.
The former senator explained that the DDS, known for its EJKs, operated in two distinct periods and the first period spanned from 1988 to 1998, when Duterte first served as Davao mayor.
During this time, hitmen—composed of rebel returnees and Philippine National Police (PNP) officers—were paid approximately ₱15,000 for each killing. Of this, ₱5,000 went to police handlers, and ₱10,000 was split among the assassins.
“Their safehouse was located inside the NAPOLCOM compound in Brgy. San Pedro, Davao,” De Lima recounted. “After the summary execution of targeted victims, the DDS members regrouped at their safehouse and divided the reward.”
De Lima further detailed how Duterte himself played a hands-on role.
“Duterte sometimes personally gave out the kill orders and the reward money directly to the assassins themselves,” she revealed, drawing a direct connection between the former president and the DDS activities.
The second period, from 2001 to 2016, saw the DDS transform into a more official and organized unit—the Heinous Crimes Investigation Section (HCIS)—under the Davao City Police Office.
During this phase, rewards ranged between ₱13,000 and ₱15,000 per killing. The payment was divided, with ₱3,000 to ₱5,000 going to police handlers and the rest split among the civilian “abanteros” or hitmen, who were typically rebel returnees.
“A team of one PNP handler and three civilian ‘abanteros’ was given an average of three targets every month,” De Lima noted.
According to De Lima, the structure of the DDS was not confined to Davao City as Duterte replicated the “Davao Model” nationwide during his presidency to implement the drug war.
De Lima claimed that Duterte’s trusted police officers from Davao, including the then-PNP chief, now Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, were appointed to key positions in major urban cities to lead the campaign of killings under the pretext of anti-drug operations.
“Duterte used the Davao system of barangay-based lists of victims,” De Lima said. “Barangay officials were required to identify drug offenders in their communities, who were then targeted in riding-in-tandem operations by death squads and official ‘nanlaban’ operations conducted by the PNP.”
De Lima stressed that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) investigation into the DDS, conducted in 2009, was crucial in understanding how Duterte’s death squads operated.
“The CHR investigation provides crucial insight into how Duterte organizes his death squads using active police officials as their leaders,” said De Lima, who was then the CHR chair when the constitutional body conducted its probe into the DDS.
The investigation also shed light on the incentive system for the death squads, revealing how intelligence funds were used to finance logistics and rewards for the killings.
A key revelation in De Lima’s testimony is the DDS's organizational structure, including Duterte’s role as the alleged mastermind.
According to De Lima, the DDS was not a loosely connected group of killers but a highly structured and state-backed death squad.
“Most of our unofficial findings in the CHR investigation were eventually confirmed by Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascañas,” De Lima explained, referring to former DDS insiders who testified about the group’s inner workings.
Matobato is a self-confessed hitman who publicly exposed the DDS's operations in 2016. His revelations were supported by Lascañas, a former senior police officer who later came forward to corroborate the DDS's existence and operational methods.
Lascañas, in particular, submitted a detailed 186-page affidavit to the International Criminal Court, which De Lima described as “the most comprehensive account of the DDS from its founding in 1988 up to 2016.”
In the affidavit, Lascañas identified Duterte—codenamed “Superman”—as the leader and mastermind of the DDS.
“MRRD (Mayor Duterte) alias Superman was the highest leader and mastermind of the DDS,” De Lima quoted from the affidavit, underscoring Duterte’s direct involvement.
The affidavit also named SPO4 Sanson Buenaventura, the logistics and finance officer who handled the clearance for death squad operations, and SPO3 Arturo Lascañas, the overall team leader for operations and planning.
According to Lascañas, the death squad’s finances came from the “Peace and Order” or “Intel Fund” of Duterte’s office.
This fund provided weekly gas allowances, monthly cash stipends and other incentives for the hitmen, who were tasked with eliminating petty criminals and high-value targets.
“In so-called ‘special project’ killings, they were rewarded anywhere from ₱100,000 to ₱1 million depending on the status of the target,” De Lima revealed, quoting Lascañas’ affidavit.
This structure, overseen by Duterte as “Superman,” was vital in expanding the DDS model nationwide when Duterte became president.
Lascañas confirmed that the DDS maintained mass graves, including the Laud quarry and the Mandug site, where the remains of the victims were disposed of—a detail corroborated by other testimonies during the Senate investigation.
In her testimony, De Lima also referenced Garma’s affidavit, presented during a previous hearing, which described a similar reward system.
According to De Lima, Garma had worked closely with the DDS even before 2016.
This link between the Davao Model and Duterte’s national drug war was critical to understanding how extrajudicial killings were incentivized and executed on a larger scale.
De Lima urged legislators to consider the CHR’s findings and the testimonies of Matobato and Lascañas as crucial evidence.
She emphasized that accountability must be sought for the thousands of victims killed during Duterte’s drug war, many of whom were targeted based on barangay lists and eliminated through a system that incentivized murder with financial rewards.
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