ILIGAN City ― I stumbled upon Arturo Lascañas by accident—not in person, but through a video. Who is he? Lascañas was once a trusted ally of then-President Rodrigo Duterte, serving as a senior member of the infamous Davao Death Squad (DDS). Alongside Edgar Matobato and others, he carried out missions targeting individuals during Duterte's tenure as mayor of Davao City.
In one chilling account, Lascañas narrated the operation to eliminate an alleged “kidnapper” outside Davao City. When the squad arrived at the target’s home, they found not just the man but his family: his wife, his son-in-law, the pregnant wife of the son-in-law, and two young children, aged six and four. Shocked, Lascañas questioned why they were to kill the entire family when only one person was the target.
The response from his team was grim: the mayor’s order was clear — no one was to be spared. Lascañas suggested sparing the young boy and leaving him somewhere far, like a terminal in Butuan City, but others in the group dismissed the idea. “If the boy grows up, he’ll seek revenge,” one argued.
In the end, no one was spared. The family was loaded into a vehicle, and somewhere outside the city, their lives were ended by a flurry of gunshots. Lascañas, recounting this, wiped tears from his eyes.
He continued his story, mentioning journalist Jun Pala, a staunch critic of Duterte. The DDS was tasked with assassinating Pala, but it took over a year to succeed because he was always on guard. Eventually, they learned of a moment when Pala was unprotected, playing tong-its at a neighbor’s house. That’s when they struck, killing him “cleanly.”
Perhaps most haunting was Lascañas’ account of his own brothers. He admitted, through sobs, that he participated in their killings, all in blind loyalty to Duterte. He spared no details of their deaths, leaving only the weight of his guilt hanging in the air.
I shared this harrowing narrative with my friend Fely, who responded with a mix of disdain and cynicism: “Hayop ka man, ay luluha ka rin.” Her words struck me— was she unaffected, or had she, like many of us, grown numb to such atrocities?
This indifference seems to mirror how many view Vice President Sara Duterte’s recent controversial rhetoric. Her remarks about “killing” and the House of Representatives’ political maneuvers are dismissed by some as mere political theater. Have we become so desensitized?
Lascañas, reportedly under a limited witness protection program by the International Criminal Court, confessed that he couldn’t bear to carry these sins to his grave. But what about us, as a nation? Where are we headed when such horrors elicit only a shrug?
It’s not just the Philippines grappling with its dark truths. Other nations, too, air their “breaking news” of tragedies, corruption, and failures in democracy. Yet, amid these shared struggles, the question lingers: what will it take for us to reclaim our humanity, to feel outrage again, and to demand better?
Lascañas’ tears remind us of the depths of human depravity — and the glimmer of conscience that persists. But are we, as a society, willing to confront these truths and change course? Or will we, like that boy who was not spared, carry this legacy of violence into the future?
Email: nora.lady@yahoo.com or contact 09073384874 | 09277983167
