On Monday, Duterte participated in a Senate investigation into his “war on drugs” and the drug-related deaths that occurred during his administration. His first public appearance after leaving office in 2022 was this one.
According to Reuters, Duterte said that he “had a death squad of seven, but they were not police, they were gangsters.”
Duterte claimed during the investigation that he never utilized national police in extrajudicial executions and denied giving orders for police to execute people.
The murder squad was ordered “to encourage criminals to fight back, and when they fought back, kill them so my issues in the city can be solved,” he said, but he denied ordering them to kill innocent detainees. ABC News reported that Duterte added, “I will ask a thug to assassinate somebody.” “I will murder you right now if you do not kill (that guy).”
In reference to drug dealers and criminals, Duterte declared, “If I am given another chance, I will eliminate all of you.” Former Senator Leila de Lima, one of Duterte’s harshest opponents, attended the session as well. People were too afraid to oppose Duterte, according to De Lima, who previously looked into the drug deaths in Davao City.
“For so long, this man—the former president of the Republic of the Philippines and the former mayor of Davao City—has avoided justice and accountability,” de Lima said. “After all these years, we have not held him accountable,” de Lima continued, adding that witnesses may now come forward and bring charges against Duterte and his allies.
Father Flavie Villanueva, another critic who attended the session, held out a scroll with the names of 312 victims whose families he had helped. “If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am mayor, you are legitimate target of assassination,” Villanueva quoted Duterte as saying when he was mayor, according to The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, the current president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., has previously declared that he would not cooperate with the court. However, The Guardian points out that could alter given the tense relations that have existed between the Marcos and Duterte families in recent months.
According to the BBC, the Philippine government estimates that 6,252 people were killed by police officers and “unknown assailants” during Duterte’s administration, which ran from 2016 to 2022. But according to human rights groups, during Duterte’s “war on drugs,” between 12,000 and 30,000 people were shot dead. The majority of those victims were young guys who were shot in their homes or on the streets in impoverished metropolitan areas.
According to Reuters, during Duterte’s 22 years as mayor, 1,400 people were killed in Davao City, according to human rights organizations.
Duterte’s extrajudicial executions and brutal crackdowns have garnered international notice and censure, prompting the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a criminal inquiry.
