Controversial leader – who has endorsed extrajudicial executions of drug offenders – says he killed to show police officers ‘if I can do it, why can’t you?’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Rodrigo Duterte has announced he personally killed suspected criminals when he was mayor of his home city of Davao in the Philippines, cruising the streets on a motorcycle and “looking for trouble”. Philippines secret death squads: officer claims police teams behind wave of killings Read more

The country’s president made the comments in a speech late on Monday night as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, which has seen police and unknown assailants kill around 5,000 people since he became president on 30 June. After speaking about police killing suspects during the current crime war, Mr. Duterte said he led similar efforts when he was Mayor of Davao, the major southern city that he ruled for most of the previous 20 years. “I know it because—I am not trying to pull my own chair—in Davao I used to do it personally. “If they say that I am afraid to stop because of the human rights and guys … including Obama, sorry, I am not about to do that,” Duterte said in English during his speech at the presidential palace this week. Mr. Duterte said he rode a big bike—presumably his street-eating Harley-Davidson motorcycle—to patrol the streets, spoiling for a fight and seeking to kill. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill.”

Duterte, 71, also responded to criticism from human rights groups and US President Barack Obama about his anti-crime tactics, vowing he would not be intimidated by their criticism into stopping. In a speech to expatriate Filipinos during a state visit to Cambodia on Tuesday, Duterte joked that as mayor of Davao he would go on missions with police and shoot blindly at criminal suspects. After drawing fire for his outrageous comments, Mr. Duterte would later dismiss them as a “joke.”

Or his aides would explain his comments as “hyperbole,” even though his comments were quite plain statements. The police say that 2,086 were shot dead in raids and 3,841 were gunned down "vigilante-style" by unknown attackers. The former mayor was nicknamed “Duterte Harry”, after the fictional and ruthless police inspector played by Clint Eastwood, for his support for vigilante death squads that killed hundreds of suspected criminals.
President Rodrigo Duterte admits in a speech to a group of businessmen that he "personally" killed suspected criminals when he served as Davao City's mayor.