Duterte’s testimony on drug killings revives nightmares in the Philippines

MANILA —

The cockiness, expletives and threats unleashed by the former President Rodrigo Duterte in a Senate investigation brought back the nightmare of the bloody “war on drugs” for many families of the thousands of victims gunned down under his rule.

During Monday’s televised hearing into the killings, a defiantly combative Duterte spoke under oath in the national spotlight for the first time since leaving office in 2022, with little sign of remorse.

He got away with it again, say critics.

“If I get another chance, I will wipe you all out,” Duterte, 79, who is seeking another term as mayor of his southern hometown of Davao next year, said of drug dealers and criminals.

Duterte again denied authorizing extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, saying there were no “state-sponsored killings.” But he acknowledged that as mayor of Davao, before becoming president, he appointed a small “death squad” of gangsters whom he ordered to eliminate other criminals.

Duterte’s profanity-laced outbursts frightened Randy delos Santos, who was invited by the Senate to speak about the killing of his cousin Kian by police under Duterte’s apparent war on drugs. It felt, he said, as if a nightmare had returned.

“I had the frightening feeling that thousands of innocent people were going to be shot again,” Delos Santos told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “I wondered why he was allowed to speak disrespectfully and he was given a platform to air his past excuses.”

Duterte has turned politics in the Philippines upside down

The thousands of killings – which human rights groups estimate could number more than 20,000 – under Duterte’s rule from 2016 to 2022 were unprecedented in recent Philippine history and led to an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity.

They have also become a delicate fault line in the increasingly hostile rivalry between Duterte and his children, including Vice President Sara Duterte, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. They had a bitter political feud over key issues. While Duterte had maintained close ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Marcos has broadened defense and military ties with the United States and its Western allies.

“It is unfortunate that drug-related crimes are increasing again. Every day you can read about children being raped, people being murdered and robbed, and recently a drug den in the Malacanang complex was raided,” Duterte said, referring to the presidential palace in Manila. “The suppliers of this threat are active again.”

Duterte has previously accused Marcos of being a drug addict and a weak leader. Marcos had responded that Duterte was a user of fentanyl, a painkiller and a powerful opioid.

With Duterte at one point looking frail and misstating his age as 73, the daylong Senate hearing also served as the final reality check on the political constraints he and his family face after he loosened his grip on the had given up power.

One of Asia’s most unorthodox leaders, Duterte has created a controversial political name for his deadly campaign against crime, expletive-laced outbursts and disregard for human rights and the West. He once called the Pope a “son of a bitch” for causing a monstrous traffic jam during a visit to Manila, and told then-President Obama to “go to hell” for criticizing his brutal crackdown on drugs .

Duterte’s profanity became a trademark of his political personality and some considered him the Trump of Asia.

During a heated exchange on Monday, Duterte raised his voice against Senator Risa Hontiveros, a staunch human rights activist, who said his campaign had killed 122 children, including an infant. Hontiveros asked the chairman overseeing the hearing to restrain the increasingly erratic Duterte, who continued to talk as she spoke. He later stopped and apologized.

“You’re trying to pin me down on semantics,” Duterte blurted out to Hontiveros, who shot back, “You’re stuck on your own words.”

“You were never a mayor or a prosecutor… I was a prosecutor, mayor, president and I know my job. You should say, ‘You son of a bitch, stop it or I will kill you,’” Duterte told senators.

The murders have left deep scars

A Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Flavie Villanueva, showed at the hearing a list of what he said were more than 300 victims, many of them breadwinners of poor families, who were killed under Duterte’s crackdown. The roll of white paper with the names of the dead that the priest unrolled was so long that it touched the carpet.

Former Senator Leila de Lima, one of Duterte’s most outspoken critics who was arrested and detained for years during his presidency, confronted him during the hearing.

The drug charges against her, she said, were fabricated by Duterte and his officials to stop her investigation into the drug killings. She was acquitted of the charges and released last year.

“This man… has evaded justice and accountability for so long,” De Lima said of Duterte, who was sitting next to her.

Senator Jinggoy Estrada wondered why De Lima did not file any criminal complaints against Duterte for so long.

Witnesses against Duterte, she said, were afraid to come out during his presidency when widespread killings took place.

“There was an atmosphere of fear, a culture of fear and impunity,” she said. “I hope many more will appear now.”

Gomez writes for the Associated Press.