Rodrigo Duterte threatens to throw corrupt officials from helicopter, claims to have done it before
However, a spokesperson for the Philippines president dismissed the remarks, calling them 'urban legend'.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to throw corrupt officials from helicopters and claimed to have done it before, BBC reported on Thursday. This is the latest claim by Duterte to having committed extra-judicial killings. The president is already being investigated by a human rights commission for previous claims.
On Tuesday, in a speech made to victims of a typhoon that struck the country, Duterte said, “If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila and I will throw you out.” “I have done this before, why would I not do it again?” he said. However, a spokesperson for the president dismissed the remarks, calling them “urban legend”.
Duterte himself attempted to distance himself from the comments, saying if they were true, “I will not admit it”. On December 23, it was reported that the Philippines Commission on Human Rights would investigate claims that the president killed criminals while serving as mayor of the city of Davao. The Commission said it would also probe reports claiming that “death squads” killed several hundred people in the city.
On December 12, the president reportedly told businessmen that he murdered suspects to “show the guys [the police] that if I can do it, why can’t you?”. “I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill,” he said. Earlier in 2015, he had said that he had killed at least three men suspected of kidnapping and rape in Davao.