Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he personally killed suspected criminals when he was Mayor of a southern city to set an example for police.

Mr. Duterte made the comments in a speech late on Monday night to businessmen as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, which has seen police and unknown assailants kill thousands of people since he became President on June 30.

After speaking about police killing suspects during the current crime war, Mr. Duterte said he led similar efforts when he was Mayor of Davao, the major southern city that he ruled for most of the previous 20 years.

“In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys [police] that if I can do it why can’t you,” Mr. Duterte said in his speech at the presidential palace.

In a speech to expatriate Filipinos during a state visit to Cambodia on Tuesday, he joked that as Mayor of Davao he would go on missions with police and shoot blindly at criminal suspects.

Rights groups have previously accused Mr. Duterte of running vigilante squads in Davao that killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals, including children accused of petty crimes. — AFP </s> Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he personally killed suspected criminals when he was mayor of a southern city to set an example for police.

Duterte made the comments in a speech late on Tuesday night to businessmen as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, which has seen police and unknown assailants kill thousands of people since he became president on June 30.

After speaking about police killing suspects during the current crime war, Duterte said he led similar efforts when he was mayor of Davao, the major southern city that he ruled for most of the previous 20 years.

“In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys (police) that if I can do it why can’t you,” Duterte said in his speech at the presidential palace.

 “And I’d go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill.”

He also responded to criticism from human rights groups and US President Barack Obama about his anti-crime tactics, vowing he would not be intimidated by their criticism into stopping.

In a speech to expatriate Filipinos during a state visit to Cambodia on Tuesday, Duterte joked that as mayor of Davao he would go on missions with police and shoot blindly at criminal suspects.

“I (would) sometimes go along with them. If you say I shot someone, maybe I did. I was closing my eyes because I am scared of firing a gun,” said Duterte, a lawyer and former state prosecutor. Rights groups have previously accused Duterte of running vigilante death squads in Davao that killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals. </s> A former Filipino militiaman testified before the country's Senate that President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was still a city mayor, ordered him and others to kill criminals and opponents that left about 1,000 dead.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A former Filipino militiaman testified before the country’s Senate on Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was still a city mayor, ordered him and other members of a liquidation squad to kill criminals and opponents in gangland-style assaults that left about 1,000 dead.

Edgar Matobato, 57, told the nationally televised Senate committee hearing that he heard Duterte order some of the killings and acknowledged he himself carried out about 50 of the abductions and deadly assaults, including a man who they fed to a crocodile in 2007 in southern Davao city.

The Senate committee inquiry was being led by Sen. Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign that has left more than 3,000 suspected drug users and dealers dead since he assumed the presidency in June. Duterte has accused de Lima of involvement in illegal drugs, alleging that she used to have a driver who took money from detained drug lords. She has denied the allegations.

The hearing was briefly halted so senators could discuss how to provide security for Matobato because of the explosive nature of his allegations.

“Our job was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers,” Matobato said under oath, adding some of the targets were not criminals but opponents of Duterte and one of his sons in Davao city.

Presidential spokesman Martin Andanar rejected the allegations, saying government investigations into Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao had already gone nowhere because of a lack of real evidence.

There was no immediate reaction from Duterte, who has denied any role in extra-judicial killings when he was the longtime mayor of Davao and after he assumed the presidency in June.

Matobato said the victims in Davao allegedly ranged from petty criminals to people associated with Duterte’s political opponents, and included a wealthy businessman who was killed in central Cebu province because of a feud with Duterte’s son over a woman.

Some of the victims were shot and dumped on Davao streets or buried in three unmarked graves, he said, adding some were disposed of in the sea with their stomachs cut open so they would not float and would be eaten by fish right away.

“They were killed like chickens,” said Matobato, who added he backed away from the killings after feeling guilty and entered a government witness-protection program.

He left the program when Duterte became president, fearing he would be killed.

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© 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. </s> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks in Tokyo on Oct. 26, 2016, during an economic forum. On Monday, Dec. 12, Duterte said when he was a mayor, he used to ride his motorcycle while chasing criminal suspects and shoot them on the spot as a way to encourage police to do the same.

On Monday, Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, bragged about killing people. He said that when he was a city mayor he used to hunt suspects on his motorcycle, shooting people on the spot. The goal, he said, was to encourage police officers to do the same.

"In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the [policemen] that if I can do it, why can't you?" he said.

"I go around in Davao (on) a big bike and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble. I was really looking for an encounter to kill."

This was not the first time Duterte appeared to admit to murder - nor would it be the first time his supporters dismissed his remarks. On Wednesday, Vitaliano Aguirre II, his justice secretary, said the president "exaggerated," and while Duterte said he went "looking" to kill, he actually "must have been forced."

All this fits a pattern: Duterte calls for killing alleged criminals, then denies a personal or government role. It's a strategy that helped get him elected and that keeps him popular as his self-proclaimed "war" claims thousands upon thousands more.

To understand why a sitting president might cop to murder, consider that Duterte has done all this before. During his two decade tenure as the mayor of Davao, a city in the southern Philippines, he earned the nickname "the death squad mayor" because of the teams of hitmen that stalked the streets, shooting petty criminals and government critics.

When rights groups investigated him, he claimed he played no role. But when he ran for president, he promised to replicate the Davao model on a national scale. His government would "kill all" the criminals. There would be death and death and death, he said, until the fish "grow fat."

This apocalyptic vision has proved popular. Having weathered colonial plunder, a kleptocratic dictator and then rule by a corrupt and feudalistic elite, many Filipinos see him as a savior, the type of leader who would bleed the system clean.

People are also incredibly fed up with rampant crime in their communities and don't believe the country's overburdened and inefficient courts can deliver the justice they crave.

Since Duterte took power on June 30, at least 5,900 people have been killed. The police say that 2,086 were shot dead in raids and 3,841 were gunned down "vigilante-style" by unknown attackers.

Independent reporting on police operations in the "drug war" has found troubling inconsistencies and strong evidence of excessive use of force. The government claims these "vigilante-style" killings are out of its control, but a recent Washington Post investigation found one such killing was actually staged by high-ranking cops - a dark echo of the "death squad" days.

International condemnation has done little to stop the violence. Local critics fear speaking out. </s> MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he personally killed suspected criminals when he was mayor of a southern city to set an example for police.

Duterte made the comments in a speech late on Monday night to businessmen as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, which has seen police and unknown assailants kill thousands of people since he became president on June 30.

After speaking about police killing suspects during the current crime war, Duterte said he led similar efforts when he was mayor of Davao, the major southern city that he ruled for most of the previous 20 years.

“In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys (police) that if I can do it why can’t you,” Duterte said in his speech at the presidential palace.

“And I’d go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill.”

Duterte, 71, also responded to criticism from human rights groups and US President Barack Obama about his anti-crime tactics, vowing he would not be intimidated by their criticism into stopping.

“Sorry, I am not about to do that,” he said.

In a speech to expatriate Filipinos during a state visit to Cambodia on Tuesday, Duterte joked that as mayor of Davao he would go on missions with police and shoot blindly at criminal suspects.

“I (would) sometimes go along with them. If you say I shot someone, maybe I did. I was closing my eyes because I am scared of firing a gun,” said Duterte, a lawyer and former state prosecutor.

Rights groups have previously accused Duterte of running vigilante death squads in Davao that killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals, including children accused of petty crimes.

Duterte has variously denied and acknowledged involvement in the death squads.

But he easily won presidential elections in May after promising to roll-out his Davao law-and-order policies across the nation.

He pledged that 100,000 people would die in the crackdown and that so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that fish there would grow fat from feeding on them.

Since taking office in late June, police have reported killing 2,086 people in anti-drug operations. More than 3,000 others have been killed in unexplained circumstances, according to official figures.

Often masked assailants break into shanty homes and kill people who have been tagged as drug traffickers or drug users. Rights groups have warned of a breakdown in the rule of law with police and hired assassins operating with complete impunity.

Duterte has insisted that police are only killing in self-defense and gangsters are murdering the other victims.

But he has also said he will not allow any police to go to jail if they are found guilty of murder in prosecuting his crime war.

Surveys show a majority of Filipinos continue to support the charismatic Duterte and his crime policies, accepting his argument that drastic action is required to stop the Philippines from becoming a narco-state.

In October, Duterte compared himself to Adolf Hitler and said he would be “happy to slaughter” three million drug addicts.

He later apologized for the Hitler reference but said he was “emphatic” about wanting to kill the millions of addicts.

In September, a self-confessed Davao death squad member told a Senate hearing into the drug war that then-mayor Duterte personally gunned down a justice department agent and ordered the murders of opponents.

The confessed hitman, Edgar Matobato, said one of the victims was fed to a crocodile.

Duterte’s aides denied the claims, sought to discredit Matobato and orchestrated the removal of the president’s chief political opponent as chair of the Senate hearing. AFP </s> Duterte says he had personally killed people

MANILA -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he personally killed suspected criminals when he was mayor of a southern city to set an example for police.

Duterte made the comments in a speech late on Monday night to businessmen as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, which has seen police and unknown assailants kill thousands of people since he became president on June 30.

After speaking about police killing suspects during the current crime war, Duterte said he led similar efforts when he was mayor of Davao, the major southern city that he ruled for most of the previous 20 years.

"In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys (police) that if I can do it why can't you," Duterte said in his speech at the presidential palace.

"And I'd go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill."

Duterte, 71, also responded to criticism from human rights groups and U.S. President Barack Obama about his anti-crime tactics, vowing he would not be intimidated by their criticism into stopping.

"Sorry, I am not about to do that," he said.

In a speech to expatriate Filipinos during a state visit to Cambodia on Tuesday, Duterte joked that as mayor of Davao he would go on missions with police and shoot blindly at criminal suspects.

"I (would) sometimes go along with them. If you say I shot someone, maybe I did. I was closing my eyes because I am scared of firing a gun," said Duterte, a lawyer and former state prosecutor.

Rights groups have previously accused Duterte of running vigilante death squads in Davao that killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals, including children accused of petty crimes.

Duterte has variously denied and acknowledged involvement in the death squads.

But he easily won presidential elections in May after promising to roll-out his Davao law-and-order policies across the nation.

He pledged that 100,000 people would die in the crackdown and that so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that fish there would grow fat from feeding on them. </s> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he personally killed suspected criminals when he was mayor of a southern city to set an example for police.

Duterte made the comments in a speech to businessmen on Monday night as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, in which police and unknown assailants have killed thousands of people since he became president on June 30.

After speaking about police killing suspects during the current crime war, Duterte said he led similar efforts when he was mayor of Davao, the major city that he ruled for most of the previous 20 years.

“In Davao I used to do it personally, just to show to the guys (police) that if I can do it, why can’t you,” Duterte said in his speech at the presidential palace. “And I’d go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill.”

Duterte also responded to criticism from human rights groups and U.S. President Barack Obama about his brutal anti-crime tactics, vowing to continue his crackdown.

“If they say that I am afraid to stop because of the human rights and guys … including Obama, sorry, I am not about to do that,” he said in English.

Rights groups have accused Duterte of running vigilante death squads in Davao that killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals.

Duterte has variously denied and acknowledged his involvement in the death squads.

As president, Duterte has called on ordinary Filipinos as well as security forces to kill drug users and traffickers, but he has also said he and his security forces would not break the law.

In October, Duterte compared himself to Adolf Hitler and said he would be “happy to slaughter” 3 million drug addicts. He later apologized for the Hitler reference but said he was “emphatic” about wanting to kill the millions of addicts.

Since his election, police have reported killing 2,086 people in anti-drug operations. More than 3,000 others have been killed in unexplained circumstances, according to official figures.

Often masked assailants break into shanty homes and kill people who have been tagged as drug traffickers or users.

Rights groups have warned of a breakdown in the rule of law, with police and hired assassins operating with impunity.

Duterte has insisted that police are killing only in self-defense and that gangsters are murdering the other victims.

But he has also said he will not allow any police to go to prison if they are found guilty of murder in prosecuting his crime war. </s> In an extraordinary hearing in the Philippine Senate, a witness claimed President Rodrigo Duterte paid him to carry out executions that involved, among other things, feeding a body to a crocodile, chopping up corpses and murder by packing tape.

The witness, Edgar Matobato, spoke to Filipino lawmakers at Senate hearings investigating a recent wave of extra-judicial killings that has claimed more than 3,000 lives as part of the president's anti-drug campaign.

Matobato said he spent years working as part of the so-called "Davao Death Squad," a group of killers associated with the president's time as a city mayor.

Matobato's claims, which have not been independently confirmed, linked President Duterte and his son, Paolo Duterte, to a list of crimes worthy of a gangster film.

He said he and fellow assassins referred to then-mayor Duterte using the code name, "Charlie Mike," and he ordered them to kill dozens of people ranging from drug pushers, to the dance-instructor boyfriend of Duterte's sister, to a millionaire hotelier.

"People in Davao City were like chickens - they were being killed without any reason," said Matobato.

The hearing's chair, Senator Leila de Lima, is a longtime critic of Duterte's human rights record. She said she saw the testimony as a step toward truth and justice for victims of the president's alleged purges, past and present. "People deserve to know," she said.

A Duterte ally present at the hearing, Senator Alan Cayetano, dismissed Matobato's sworn testimony as "lies," questioning his credibility and casting the whole process as a politically motivated plot against the president. A spokesman for the president denied the allegation.

The dramatic scene at the Senate on Thursday showed a country divided at home and struggling to keep its balance on the global stage.

Duterte swept to power this spring promising to crackdown on crime, just as he did as the longtime mayor of Davao, where he earned a reputation for strongman tactics and was christened "the death squad mayor" for allegedly overseeing extra-judicial killings.

During this year's campaign Duterte did not shy away from his "death squad" moniker, promising he would kill 100,000 criminals in six months.

"When I become president, I'll order the police and the military to find these people and kill them. The funeral parlors will be packed. . . I'll supply the dead bodies," he said.

Since he took office in July, some 3,000 people have been murdered. Duterte initially seemed to urge the killers on, but has more recently tried to distance himself from extra-judicial killings and summary executions.

The deaths have been condemned by the United Nations and questioned by President Barack Obama. Duterte has shrugged off all criticism, instead railing against U.S. colonialism in the saltiest possible terms.

The president's undiplomatic comments and erratic approach to foreign policy has the U.S. worried.

The Philippines, a onetime U.S. colony, is a close ally of the United States. With China pressing its claims to most of the South China Sea, the U.S. and Philippine sides have for several years been moving toward greater military cooperation.

But Duterte's rise puts that in question. After his profanity-laced comments about Obama at a recent summit, Duterte called for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces from the island of Mindanao. He also announced he will buy weapons from the Chinese.

Duterte has yet to comment on Wednesday's hearing. </s> MANILA: The Philippines Rodrigo independent human rights watchdog said on Thursday it will investigate President Rodrigo Duterte's admission he killed three criminals years ago, after the United Nation's rights chief called for a murder probe. Duterte, who is waging an anti-drugs war that has left thousands dead, said last week that he helped police kill three suspected kidnappers early in the first of his several terms as mayor of the southern city of Davao.

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President Rodrigo Duterte admits in a speech to a group of businessmen that he "personally" killed suspected criminals when he served as Davao City's mayor.