MANILA, Oct 28 — Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte confirmed a “death squad” existed under his watch to control crime when he was Davao City mayor, but gave conflicting accounts of its makeup, first saying it was run by police officers, then by gangsters.
When he was president, two men including a former policeman had testified before the Senate they were part of an alleged hit squad in Davao which the claimed killed at Duterte’s behest, but legislators at the time found no proof and Duterte’s aides dismissed the claims as fabrication.
Appearing today before a Senate inquiry into his campaign against illegal drugs, Duterte identified “commanders” of the death squad which he said included former national police chief-turned-senator Ronaldo dela Rosa, who was also present at the hearing.
“That is the job of the police,” he said, admitting to senators that thousands of criminals died when he was Davao mayor.
Duterte added that he had never ordered the death squad to kill defenceless suspects, but did tell the group “to encourage criminals to fight back, and when they fought back, kill them so my problems in the city will be solved.”
But the 79-year-old later said gangsters — not police — made up his death squad, contributing to the ambiguity surrounding the squad’s operations.
“I can make the confession now if you want. I had a death squad of seven, but they were not police, they were gangsters,” he said.
Human rights groups documented about 1,400 suspicious killings in Davao during the 22 years Duterte was mayor and critics say the war on drugs he unleashed as president bore the same hallmarks.
Over 6,200 people were killed in police operations in the anti-drugs campaign, which is also the subject of an International Criminal Court investigation.
The police have rejected allegations the killings were executions, saying the drug suspects violently resisted arrest and that authorities acted in self-defence.
Senator dela Rosa, who oversaw Duterte’s bloody crackdown when he was national police chief, previously said the death squads were “fiction.”
In today’s hearing, he downplayed Duterte’s remarks, saying they should be taken as a joke.
— Reuters
