Former president Rodrigo Duterte yesterday challenged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to start investigating allegations that he ordered the summary killing of thousands of drug suspects.
"The ICC does not scare me a bit. They can come here any time. I suppose you want to make it easy for them to come. I would welcome that," Duterte told the quad comm.
"Investigate me now before I die."
"Yes, I did it. I did it for my country and for the young people. No excuses, no apologies. If I go to hell, then so be it," he added.
Duterte, a former Davao City mayor, asked the ICC to come to the country, "if possible tomorrow," so that the issue of extrajudicial killings (EJK) would not be left hanging.
He dared Rep. Raoul Manuel of party-list Kabataan to "give me the money so I can go there right now."
"Hurry up, you might miss the pleasure of seeing me standing before the court and hearing the judgment," Duterte added.
The 79-year-old former chief executive confirmed many of the allegations hurled against him, except for a few details, standing his ground that he alone should be indicted for all the actions - rightly or wrongly - taken by his law enforcers in his six-year war against illegal drugs.
He refused to acknowledge Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas' query if, indeed, he just took his "Davao model" of killing onto a national scale when he was elected president.
"I can't control the semantics," Duterte, known for his hardline stance against criminality, specifically drugs, told Brosas.
"You are not an investigator, and this is not an inquisition. Don't control my answer. Are you a policeman?" he added.
Upon further questioning, the former president was candid enough to acknowledge that he indeed killed about six or seven criminals when he was still mayor.
"I've killed several, I think six or seven, I just don't know if I was able to kill the others," he said.
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