Duterte’s jarring testimony into drug killings in Philippines relives a nightmare for many

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The cockiness, expletives and threats unleashed by former President Rodrigo Duterte in a Senate inquiry brought back the nightmare of the bloody “war on drugs” for many families of the thousands of victims who were gunned down under his rule.

Speaking under oath in Monday’s televised hearing into the killings, a defiantly combative Duterte returned to the national spotlight for the first time since leaving office in 2022 with little show of remorse.

He got away with it again, critics say.

“If I’m given another chance, I’ll wipe all of you,” Duterte, 79, who is seeking a new term as mayor of his southern home city of Davao next year, said of drug dealers and criminals.

Duterte again denied that he authorized extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, saying there were no “state-sponsored killings.” But he acknowledged that as mayor of Davao, before becoming president, he kept a small “ death squad ” of gangsters whom he had ordered to eliminate other criminals.

Duterte’s profanity-laced outbursts scared Randy delos Santos, who was invited by the Senate to speak about the killing of his nephew, Kian, by police under Duterte’s “war on drugs.” It felt, he said, like a nightmare had returned.

“I had this frightening feeling that thousands of innocent people may be gunned down again,” delos Santos told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I was wondering why he was allowed to speak with disrespect and given a stage to vent his past excuses.”

Duterte has upended politics in Philippines

The thousands of killings — which human rights groups estimate could exceed 20,000 — under Duterte’s administration 2016-2022 were unprecedented in recent Philippine history and triggered an International Criminal Court