Duterte says that as mayor he set up a ‘death squad’ to kill criminals

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has told a Senate inquiry that he appointed a “death squad” of criminals to kill other criminals when he was mayor of a southern Philippine city.

However, Duterte denied authorizing police to shoot thousands of suspects in a bloody crackdown on illegal drugs he ordered as president and which is the subject of an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity.

The 79-year-old attended the televised inquiry in his first public appearance since his term ended in 2022. The Senate is investigating the drug killings under Duterte, which were unprecedented in recent Philippine history.

Mr. Duterte, without elaborating, acknowledged that he once maintained a death squad of seven “gangsters” to target criminals when he was the longtime mayor of Davao City before becoming president.

“I can make the confession now if you want,” Duterte said. “I had a death squad of seven people, but they weren’t police officers, they were gangsters too.

‘I’ll ask a gangster to kill someone. “If you don’t kill (that person), I will kill you now.”

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, who oversaw the investigation, and Senator Risa Hontiveros pressed Duterte to provide more details, but the former president responded in ambiguous terms, adding that he would elaborate further at the next hearing .

Frequently swearing, Duterte said during the hearing that he would take full responsibility for the killings that took place when he was president from 2016 to 2022. But he said he never ordered extrajudicial killings from his national police chiefs, who also attended the investigation .

“Did I ever tell you to kill a criminal?” Duterte asked his former police chiefs. Among them was Ronald Dela Rosa, the current senator who, as national police chief, first implemented Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

“No, Mr. President,” Mr. Dela Rosa replied.

Former Senator Leila de Lima, one of the most outspoken critics of Duterte who ever investigated the drug killings in Davao, said there was ample evidence and witnesses of the extrajudicial killings but they were afraid to testify against Duterte.

Ms. de Lima was arrested early in Mr. Duterte’s presidency on drug charges that she said were trumped up to prevent her from proceeding with her Senate investigation. She was acquitted of the charges and released last year after more than six years in detention.

“This man, the former mayor of Davao City and the former President of the Republic of the Philippines, has evaded justice and accountability for so long,” said Ms. de Lima, sitting next to the former president.

“We have not held him accountable after all these years,” she said, adding that witnesses can now come forward and help prosecute Duterte and his associates.

Mr. Duterte sounded defiant during the hearing.

“If I get another chance, I will wipe you all out,” Duterte said of drug dealers and criminals, who he said had resumed their criminal activities after he resigned as president.

One of Asia’s most unorthodox contemporary leaders, Duterte ended his turbulent six-year term in June 2022, capping more than three decades in the country’s often vociferous politics, where he built a political name for his expletive-laced outbursts and disregard for human rights and the West, while at the same time reaching out to China and Russia.

Activists deemed him “a human rights disaster” not only because of widespread deaths under his so-called war on drugs, but also because of his brutal attacks on critical media, the dominant Catholic Church and the political opposition.