In a television interview, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has admitted his links to the Davao Death Squad, which is allegedly responsible for summary executions of criminals in the city.
Earlier, a New York-based Human Rights Watch has called for an investigation into the killings and urged the Philippine government not to tolerate a public official who endorses extrajudicial killings.
However, Duterte dared the group to file a case against him in court.
“Ako, ako daw death squad? True, that’s true,” he said in an interview with Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa.
“Gusto ko sila pumunta dito. There’s no need for you to go to the Ombudsman. There is no requirement that you go to the human rights. File directly in court. Then I’ll place you under oath. Just execute an affidavit. Then I’ll call you when it’s my time for cross-examination. And I will show to the world how stupid you are,” he added.
Human Rights Watch condemned the more than 1, 000 killings committed by the Davao Death Squad since the late 1990s linking police and local government officials in the targeted killings of alleged drug dealers and petty criminals, street children and others.
Unapologetic, Duterte himself has even boasted that Davao has become one of the world’s safest cities simply by killing all criminals.
In 2012, a commission of Human Rights has found probable cause to recommend that the Office of the Ombudsman filed murder charges against the mayor however, the Ombudsman limited its investigation to police and found 21 guilty of “simple neglect of duty.”
The mayor added that summary executions is one of the reasons he doesn’t want to run for higher office in 2016 saying that instead of 1, 000 dead criminals, the number might rise to 50, 000 if he is elected president.
“Alam po pag ako ang presidente, I will warn you I do not covet the position. Pag naging presidente ako, magtago na kayo. Yung 1,000 n ayan it would reach 50,000. I will kill all you [expletive] breaking the life of the Filipino miserable. Papatayin ko talaga kayo.”
“Manalo ako kasi because of breakdown of law and order. I do not want to commit a crime but if by chance, God will place me there, magbantay kayo. Yung 1,000, magiging 100,000. Dyan mo makita tataba yung isda sa Manila Bay. Dyan ko kayo itapon.”
“I do not want to be president. I do not want to kill people so do not elect me as president.”
H/T: ABS-CBN News; and screen grab
