DHAKA: Controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted killing suspected criminals during his time as mayor of Davao City.
“In Davao, I used to do it personally. Just to show the guys that, if I can do it, why can't you?” Duterte said, reports CNN.
“And (I'd) go around Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble also. I was really looking for an encounter so I could kill.”
He made the remarks at the Wallace Business Forum in Manila on Monday (December 12).
It's a claim that has been made against him by his detractors but, until now, Duterte has denied the allegations through his office.
Since taking power in June, Duterte has waged a brutal “war on drugs”. The crackdown has been linked to more than 5,900 deaths in less than six months.
Allegations that Duterte had been personally involved in killings in Davao were previously made at a senate inquiry set up to look into extrajudicial killings during the President's drug crackdown.
Self-professed hitman Edgar Matobato told the committee he saw Duterte unload two magazines of an Uzi submachine gun into a National Bureau of Investigation official.
“He must have finished 200 bullets,” Matobato said in September.
The hitman claimed more than 1,000 people had been killed by death squads during Duterte's time as mayor.
The senate inquiry was scrapped and investigations stopped in October, after the committee's head and Duterte critic, Sen. Leila De Lima, was replaced.
Duterte is no stranger to controversy -- he's frequently made headlines in the past year for his public statements.
Before an international summit in September, he called US President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch,” while denouncing US condemnation of his war on drugs.
In response, the White House canceled bilateral talks between the two leaders.
During the same speech this week in which he admitted to killing people, Duterte said he had deliberately avoided Obama at the Laos summitto avoid an “awkward situation.”
“I would not know if he would accept my gesture of a handshake,” said Duterte.
BDST: 1958 HRS, DEC 14, 2016
AP
