MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte yesterday challenged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to start investigating allegations that he ordered the summary killing of thousands of drug suspects.
“The ICC does not scare me a bit. They can come here any time. I suppose you want to make it easy for them to come. I would welcome that,” Duterte told the quad comm. “Investigate me now before I die.”
“Yes, I did it. I did it for my country and for the young people. No excuses, no apologies. If I go to hell, then so be it,” he added.
Duterte, a former Davao City mayor, asked the ICC to come to the country, “if possible tomorrow,” so that the issue of extrajudicial killings (EJK) would not be left hanging.
He dared Rep. Raoul Manuel of party-list Kabataan to “give me the money so I can go there right now.”
“Hurry up, you might miss the pleasure of seeing me standing before the court and hearing the judgment,” Duterte added.
The 79-year-old former chief executive confirmed many of the allegations hurled against him, except for a few details, standing his ground that he alone should be indicted for all the actions – rightly or wrongly – taken by his law enforcers in his six-year war against illegal drugs.
He refused to acknowledge Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas’ query if, indeed, he just took his “Davao model” of killing onto a national scale when he was elected president.
“I can’t control the semantics,” Duterte, known for his hardline stance against criminality, specifically drugs, told Brosas.
“You are not an investigator, and this is not an inquisition. Don’t control my answer. Are you a policeman?” he added.
Upon further questioning, the former president was candid enough to acknowledge that he indeed killed about six or seven criminals when he was still mayor.
“I’ve killed several, I think six or seven, I just don’t know if I was able to kill the others,” he said.
He likewise affirmed Brosas’ question, which was in the form of a quote he previously uttered, that he killed if only to show policemen that he is not afraid of doing so himself.
“I really pray that whenever I do rounds in Davao that I would bump into a holdupper, it’s because I don’t have any patience for criminals. I will really kill you,” Duterte emphasized, further indicating that it was part of his personal policy to protect policemen doing their job.
“I really want my city to be safe and clean. And yes, I will own up everything – I’m the mayor. The job of policemen (has) consequences sometimes. It can go right or wrong, but I will protect my policemen because I’m the mayor,” he added.
P1 million to help cops
Duterte also admitted to quad comm co-chairman and Santa Rosa, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez about a reward system among law enforcement authorities, insisting “I was fighting the drug user.”
“Finish them all, I will go to prison for that. I did it to protect my country,” Duterte said.
He was shown details provided by Philippine National Police chief Rommel Francisco Marbil that 1,286 officers were affected by the drug war, 312 were killed and 974 were injured during anti-narcotics operations from July 2016 to June 2022, when Duterte stepped down after serving his full six-year term
On top of this, Marbil also revealed that 214 personnel are now facing 352 criminal cases related to their work, while 195 officers were sacked, 398 are now facing dismissal from the police service and over 20 policemen remain in detention as part of cases related to the drug war’s enforcement.
“Several police officers endured not only physical harm, but also found themselves entangled in legal and administrative challenges. The numbers remind us that the impact of the anti-drug campaign was deeply felt by our police as well,” he said.
The PNP chief added that the affected personnel “carried out their responsibilities with dedication and often faced considerable risks to ensure public safety.”
Fernandez sought Duterte’s reaction on cops’ resentment that they were left to fend for themselves, for which they are now facing murder charges, which ran counter to his promise that he would take care of them no matter what.
“I was not asked about it. I didn’t know about it. Then, I will now make this promise: I’m putting up P1 million. I’ll start raising money to help these policemen. I will personally appear in court if I have to. I will act as their defense counsel if I have to,” Duterte said.
Philippines turned into ‘killing fields’
For quad comm co-chairman and Manila 6th District Rep. Benny Abante, the country became “killing fields” during Duterte’s presidency.
In his opening statement during yesterday’s hearing, Abante said Duterte’s war on drugs has rendered more than 30,000 people dead, composed of drug pushers, drug users and worst, innocent civilians.
“We are worse than Mexico because Mexico only had less than 10,000. We are also worse than Colombia. The Philippines became killing fields during your time,” Abante told Duterte.
“We believed that drugs should not thrive in our country, but I do not believe that we need to kill more than 30,000 people. Because of this, Kian Alejandro (wrongly mentioning the victim’s last name, Delos Santos), what is his sin?” Abante asserted.
The lawmaker said assassins were motivated to kill drug suspects and innocent civilians during the Duterte administration and were rewarded with money ranging from P10,000 to as high as P1 million.
He noted that the former president denied the existence of the reward system in his testimony before the Senate on Oct. 28.
Abante said even children and innocent civilians were killed in the course of Duterte’s drug war and their deaths were treated as “collateral damage” that could not be avoided.
He expressed hope that Duterte will help in the quad comm’s goal of unearthing the truth behind EJKs perpetrated during the previous administration’s war on drugs.
Hearing held to accommodate Duterte
The quad committee pushed through with its original Nov. 13 hearing even if it had been already reset to Nov. 21 to accommodate Duterte.
“The cancellation of our hearing for today was sent properly to the camp and among the staff of the former president. And when we learned that he is willing to come here to confront us today, we all decided to push through with this hearing,” lead quad comm chairman and Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said.
“We all agreed that it would be good to take advantage of your presence, even if we received no formal reply from your lawyers,” Barbers explained, addressing Duterte, as the hearing was about to start.
Barbers added that the quad comm is comprised of four committees whose areas of coverage vary in terms of jurisdiction, which was precisely formed to avoid overlapping in the nature of their investigation, which in fact had intertwined issues and personalities concerned.
Speaking in behalf of his other quad comm co-chairmen, Barbers said they all decided to heed the advice of Duterte’s counsel, Martin Delgra III, who served as the former president’s Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairman, to utilize Duterte’s Oct. 28 “opening remarks” before the Senate as part of his defense.
Sara: Rodrigo Duterte wants probes to be over
Meanwhile, Vice President Sara Duterte said her father just wants the investigations over and done with, when the latter urged the ICC to hurry up and order his arrest.
“He just wants the investigations by the quad committee on extrajudicial killings and the ICC to be finished and done with,” the Vice President said at a press briefing at the Senate yesterday.
She was at the Senate to attend the plenary debates on the Office of the Vice President’s slashed 2025 budget.
The Vice President said she did not watch yesterday’s quad comm hearing attended by her father. She said the House is not expected to be fair in its investigation of the previous administration.
“I do not expect fairness… It’s clearly a political persecution,” Duterte said.
She added that she also experienced how the House bent its rules for political persecution when the chamber investigated the alleged misuse of her confidential funds during the deliberations on her proposed budget.
“There are no more rules in the House of Representatives. They use the rules according to their pleasure, even though it borders on being unconstitutional,” Duterte said.
Despite the investigations being faced by her father from both the House and the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee, the Vice President asserted that she is not worried about her father.
“Former president Duterte is being targeted by both the House and the ICC about alleged extrajudicial killings of his administration. Why is it happening? Well, one would think they are going after him because they want him to lose something,” the Vice President said without elaborating.
“Do I worry about the former president? I don’t think he will go there if he thinks he cannot take it, if he is weak health-wise. He’ll be OK,” she added.
At a press briefing at the Senate, Senate President Francis Escudero questioned the former president’s dare to the ICC to arrest him.
Escudero pointed out that it was Duterte’s move to pull out of the ICC when the international tribunal started its investigation into possible crimes against humanity in Duterte’s war on drugs.
“How will he operationalize that when it was because of him that the country pulled out of the ICC? I think it is better that the question is asked to him,” Escudero said.
The Senate President, however, is hands off about calls from his minority colleagues, Senators Risa Hontiveros and Aquilino Pimentel III, for the Philippines under President Marcos to rejoin the ICC.
‘Michael Yang not a drug lord’
Also at the hearing, Duterte confirmed knowing businessman Michael Yang, whom he appointed as presidential adviser on economic affairs, but denied repeated insinuations that he is among the biggest drug lords in the country.
“He is a businessman, and he’s the owner of a big department store in Davao City. And I used to cut the ribbon for his store,” Duterte told ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, who questioned his links with the suspected drug lord.
“I’m a politician, and to me this is another vote. Money, we need money, and votes, we need votes and money – let’s be frank with each other. But If I can only be sure that he’s involved in drugs, then I myself would kill him. I don’t have patience for that. Don’t confuse that because he’s a Chinese. If you want to have a picture with me, that’s fine with me,” Duterte explained.
Planting evidence in Davao
Duterte also admitted to resorting to planting evidence on a suspected criminal during his time as Davao mayor.
He made the admission at the end of a question-and-answer exchange with Fernandez after initially denying that he employed evidence-planting, contrary to what he declared in a 2016 interview.
The former president changed his previous denial when shown a video footage of his interview. “Isn’t the one shown in the video true?” Fernandez asked Duterte, to which the latter responded: “It’s true.”
“So is it true that you plant evidence?” Fernandez asked.
“Well, that was a part of the strategy as a mayor and as the leader of a law enforcement agency in the city,” Duterte answered.
Before Duterte’s admission, Fernandez asked, “Mr. president, you said in a 2016 interview that you have planted evidence during your time as a fiscal. Is this true?”
“That’s garbage, sir,” Duterte answered.
“So, what you said in the video, isn’t it true?” Fernandez insisted.
“The police knows about it, the planting of evidence,” Duterte answered.– Jose Rodel Clapano, Marc Jayson Cayabyab