The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has told a senate inquiry into drug killings under his leadership that he kept a “death squad” of criminals to kill other criminals while serving as a mayor.
“What I said is this, let’s be frank, I said encourage the criminal to fight, encourage them to draw their guns. That was my instruction, encourage them to fight, and if they fight, then kill them so my problem in my city is done,” he said
Earlier this month, a separate parliamentary inquiry heard evidence from a former police colonel who said officers could earn between 20,000 pesos (£265) and 1m pesos (£13,200) per killing during the drugs crackdowns, depending upon the target. Rewards were given only for killings, not arrests, she said
Duterte denied authorising police to kill suspects, saying he had never ordered his national police chiefs to carry out extrajudicial killings.
What a ridiculously flimsy way to deny responsibility