On the left is President Rodrigo Duterte holding an Israeli-made Galil rifle at the turn-over ceremony on April 19, 2018, at Camp Crame in Quezon City. On the right is a screencap photo of him during his televised nation address on October 5, 2020.
After confessing on several instances that he had murdered someone, President Rodrigo Duterte has once again contradicted himself, insisting that he has neither killed anyone nor instructed the killing of another person.
“Maraming sinasabi ‘Rule of law, hindi ka naman sumusunod. Marami kang pinapatay.’ Wala ho akong pinatay na tao. Never, never. Magtanong ka ng isang pulis dito sa Pilipinas,” Duterte said during his televised nation address on October 5.
“Magtanong ka kay Secretary Año sa DILG, magtanong ka kay Delfin Lorenzana, at may inutusan ba akong taong sinabi, ‘Patayin mo ito si Mr. Santos, Edmundo Santos, o patayin mo ito si Juan dela Cruz.’ I never do that,” he added.
However, in 2017, Duterte admitted that he had stabbed a person to death when he was 16.
“At the age of 16, may pinatay na ako eh. Tao talaga. Rambol. Saksak. Noon 16 years old ‘yun. Nagkatinginan lang. Eh lalo na ngayong president ako,” Duterte said in front of the Filipino community in Vietnam.
In 2016, Duterte claimed that he killed suspected criminals and used to join police operations when he was still a mayor in Davao City.
“But in Davao, I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys that, if I can do it why can’t you? And I go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble also. Talagang naghahanap ako ng engkwentro para makapatay,” he said during the Wallace Business Forum.
A year later, an ex-officer named Arturo Lascañas accused Duterte as the person behind the “Davao Death Squad” (DDS)—an alleged vigilante group in Davao City that conducted summary executions on suspected individuals involved in drugs and other crimes.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights Council has ordered an investigation to examine the extrajudicial killings linked to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines.
Several progressive and human rights groups have also blamed the Duterte administration for the widespread killings and human rights violations in the country.
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