Former Senator Leila de Lima accused former President Rodrigo Duterte of fostering a deeply ingrained reward system for police officials who killed criminal suspects, as revealed by police officer Royina Garma during a recent QuadComm probe.
De Lima claimed that Duterte’s so-called “Davao model,” a strategy allegedly used during his long tenure as Davao City mayor, involved paying hitmen from the infamous Davao Death Squad (DDS) for extrajudicial killings. She stated that, based on her investigation while serving as Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson, DDS members were paid ₱15,000 per kill, with ₱5,000 going to police handlers and the remaining ₱10,000 split among the assassins.
According to de Lima, the DDS comprised rebel returnees and members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), with safehouses located within the Napolcom compound in Davao. After the killings, the group would meet at these locations to divide the rewards.
“Duterte sometimes personally gave out the kill orders and the reward money directly to the assassins themselves,” de Lima further alleged.
From 2001 to 2016, the DDS was reportedly renamed the Heinous Crimes Investigation Section (HCIS) under the Davao City Police Office, with the reward for each kill increasing to between ₱13,000 and ₱15,000, de Lima said. The payments were distributed between police handlers and civilian hitmen known as “abanteros.”
Despite these claims, Duterte has consistently denied the existence of such a reward system. In a recent interview, he reiterated that the only “rewards” he gave to police officers were meals and congratulations after successful missions, adding that he never ordered killings.