Reuters, Manila :
Activists and opponents of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte called for legal action against him on Friday after he appeared to admit responsibility for extrajudicial killings, in remarks his spokesman said were “playful” and misinterpreted.
The mercurial president is the subject of two complaints before the International Criminal Court (ICC) that accuse him of crimes against humanity over thousands of deaths during his bloody anti-narcotics campaign.
Duterte, known for rambling, at times perplexing speeches, apparently conceded that summary executions had taken place during his war on drugs, something he has vigorously denied when accused by rights groups and critics. During a routine speech at an oath-taking ceremony for bureaucrats on Thursday, he chided unspecified critics in a tirade about which the context was not clear.
“What is my sin? Did I steal, even one peso? Did I prosecute somebody whom I jailed,” Duterte said. “My only sin is the extrajudicial killing,” he said, without elaborating. Police have klled more than 4,800 people since Duterte took office in July 2016 and
unleashed his anti-drug crackdown. The government denies activists’ allegations that police are exterminating drug users, and say those killed were all dealers who had resisted arrest. Police also deny involvement in several thousand other street killings of addicts, blaming the largely unsolved murders on criminals. U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, called Duterte’s remark “extraordinary” and said he had effectively admitted to “imposing unthinkable sufferings on thousands of families, emboldening corrupt policing and destroying the rule of law”. Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros said the comment “establishes his clear and direct accountability for the killings”, while Minar Pimple of London-based Amnesty International, said the ICC should take note, and that an international investigation was urgently required.
Activists and opponents of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte called for legal action against him on Friday after he appeared to admit responsibility for extrajudicial killings, in remarks his spokesman said were “playful” and misinterpreted.
The mercurial president is the subject of two complaints before the International Criminal Court (ICC) that accuse him of crimes against humanity over thousands of deaths during his bloody anti-narcotics campaign.
Duterte, known for rambling, at times perplexing speeches, apparently conceded that summary executions had taken place during his war on drugs, something he has vigorously denied when accused by rights groups and critics. During a routine speech at an oath-taking ceremony for bureaucrats on Thursday, he chided unspecified critics in a tirade about which the context was not clear.
“What is my sin? Did I steal, even one peso? Did I prosecute somebody whom I jailed,” Duterte said. “My only sin is the extrajudicial killing,” he said, without elaborating. Police have klled more than 4,800 people since Duterte took office in July 2016 and
unleashed his anti-drug crackdown. The government denies activists’ allegations that police are exterminating drug users, and say those killed were all dealers who had resisted arrest. Police also deny involvement in several thousand other street killings of addicts, blaming the largely unsolved murders on criminals. U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, called Duterte’s remark “extraordinary” and said he had effectively admitted to “imposing unthinkable sufferings on thousands of families, emboldening corrupt policing and destroying the rule of law”. Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros said the comment “establishes his clear and direct accountability for the killings”, while Minar Pimple of London-based Amnesty International, said the ICC should take note, and that an international investigation was urgently required.
