In a speech made on Monday evening, Philipine’s President Rodrigo Duterte openly admitted to – and even bragged about – murdering suspected criminals during his time as mayor of Davao.
Duterte has received global criticism for his wanton sanctioning of murder of hundreds of citizens associated with drugs, but it appears that the reality is even worse than we could have imagined.
Though there have been reports from others who claime Duterte himself murdered individuals, hearing him admit it in such calm terms is chilling.
Duterte said that he would go on patrols with police officers, eager to shoot criminals and show the police “that if I can do it why can’t you.”
“In Davao I used to do it personally. . . 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.”
Again on Tuesday, Duterte again bragged about his murderous history.
“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.”
Donald Trump made waves in recent weeks by accepting with open arms political leaders and countries that the U.S. traditionally keeps at arms length, and Duterte is one of those.
We think we’ve got it bad, but at least we can reasonably assume that our President-elect is not a cold-blooded murderer. In 2016, that means something.
Unfortunately, our probably-not-a-murderer President-elect has made it clear that he’s a big fan of Duterte, though we’re not sure how he will feel now that he knows his new buddy is a man with blood on his hands.
