Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted to using death squads to suppress crime while he was mayor of one of the largest cities in the Southeast Asian country. He admitted before a government investigation that he used gangsters to carry out extrajudicial killings in the name of the so-called war on drugs.
According to a report by the BBC, Rodrigo Duterte won the presidency in 2016 by promising to work nationally to combat crime in his constituency of Davao. He then killed thousands of people in the name of an anti-drug campaign. He used the police to do this. The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into his controversial actions.
During a Senate hearing on Monday (October 28), Durtete said that he encouraged the police to do this. So that they could be given legal legitimacy.
“Don’t question my policies, I make no apologies, I make no excuses. I know what I did, believe it or not, I did it for the country. Because I hate drugs. So I’m not wrong about it,” Durrati said.
He admitted that he did not seek permission from the police chief to kill suspects. He also said that the death squads he formed were not police-led but gangster-led.
The Philippine government says that Durrati has killed 6,252 people in the name of an anti-drug campaign, including police and his gangsters. Rights activists say the number is much higher.
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