Philippine Ex-President: I Kept a 'Death Squad'

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told a Senate inquiry Monday that he had maintained a "death squad" of criminals to kill other criminals when he was mayor of a southern Philippine city. Duterte, however, denied authorizing police to gun down thousands of suspects in a bloody crackdown on illegal drugs he ordered as president that is the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte, 79, attended the televised inquiry in his first public appearance since his term ended in 2022, reports the AP. The Senate is looking into the drug killings under Duterte, which were unprecedented in their scale in recent Philippine history.

Duterte acknowledged that he once maintained a death squad of seven "gangsters" to deal with criminals when he was the longtime Davao city mayor. "I had a death squad of seven, but they were not policemen, they were also gangsters," Duterte said. "I'll ask a gangster to kill somebody. If you will not kill (that person), I will kill you now." Often cursing, Duterte said he would take full responsibility for the killings that happened while he was president from 2016 to 2022. But he said he never ordered his national police chiefs, who also attended the inquiry, to undertake extrajudicial killings.

Former Sen. Leila de Lima, one of the most vocal critics of Duterte who once investigated the drug killings in Davao, said there was adequate evidence and witnesses of the extrajudicial killings but they were scared of testifying against Duterte. De Lima was arrested early in Duterte's presidency on drug charges she said were fabricated to halt her Senate investigation. She was cleared of the charges and released from more than six years of detention last year. "This man ... for so long has evaded justice and accountability," said de Lima, sitting near the former president. "We have not made him to account after all these years," she said. Duterte sounded defiant through the hearing. "If I'm given another chance, I'll wipe all of you," Duterte said of drug dealers and criminals.

(More Philippines stories.)