come to thinkBy Ade S. Fajardo
Sonny Buenaventura can most likely corroborate the narration submitted by Retired PO3 Arturo B. Lascañas to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Lascañas said in his ICC affidavit that Buenaventura was one of the “evil lieutenants” in the Davao Death Squad (DDS), Rodrigo Duterte’s “personal killing machine” whose targets for liquidation were not anchored on authentic intelligence information but identified solely on the basis of Duterte’s orders.
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Lascañas spent his entire police career in Davao City. He alleged that the DDS maintained several mass graves, among which are the waters of the Davao gulf area in Samal Island.
The DDS used a motorized “death boat.” They threw dead bodies into the sea under the supervision of Police Senior Master Sergeant Sanson “Sonny” Buenaventura.
Buenaventura started as Duterte’s driver-bodyguard after President Cory Aquino appointed Duterte OIC Vice Mayor of Davao City after the EDSA Revolution in 1986.
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Duterte won for the first time as Davao mayor when he beat then sitting Mayor Zafiro Respicio in the 1988 elections. Buenaventura chauffeured Vice Mayor Duterte in his beat-up Volkswagen.
Duterte has been unbeatable since his victory at the polls in 1988. As he entrenched himself in Davao politics, his errand boy Sonny Buenaventura increasingly rose to prominence in the feared yet glorified DDS.
Proximity to the strongman brought him to a life of crime, glory and riches.
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Lascañas recounts that the abductions and murders even went beyond the boundaries of Davao City.
Around the year 2000, when Duterte took a break as mayor to work as Davao congressman, then Chief Inspector Bato dela Rosa purportedly ordered Lascañas and his team to abduct a suspected extortionist in the Diwalwal mining area in Compostela Valley.
Lascañas nonetheless sought clearance from Buenaventura who confirmed that the operation had the go-signal of Duterte. The target’s subsequent “neutralization” was also cleared by Buenaventura, supposedly speaking in behalf of Duterte.
It turned out, according to Lascañas, that Dela Rosa was “taking sides in the internal squabbles” among the small-scale mining operators in Diwalwal.
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It was also Sonny Buenaventura who supposedly relayed to Lascañas Duterte’s plan to eliminate Fred Sotto in 2001 or 2002. Sotto was a barangay councilman and a radio reporter who was a vocal critic of Duterte.
He was waylaid by Lascañas’ team of “players/hitmen” at the Agdao Public Market in Davao City, for which Mayor Duterte allegedly allotted a hundred thousand pesos as cash reward.
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The most celebrated Davao City killing was that of former councilor and radio commentator Jun Pala in 2003.
Duterte and his son Paolo bore the brunt of Pala’s almost daily attacks on the airwaves. His tirades could have prejudiced the firebrand mayor’s political career.
Again, it was Buenaventura who allegedly identified an asset within Pala’s group who relayed his movements to the DDS. Pala was betrayed by his aide and ambushed after a card game.
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So, where is Buenaventura? Is he among the cast of characters in today’s Quadcom hearing in Congress? Will we see a clash of testimonies between him and his longtime boss?/WDJ