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NewsTranscript
00:00I can make the confession now, if you want.
00:07I have a death squad, but not the police.
00:14They are also the gangsters.
00:18I order one gangster, kill him because if you don't kill him, I will kill you now.
00:27This is the confession of former President Rodrigo Duterte about the Davao Death Squad
00:31when he faced the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that is investigating his war against drugs.
00:36You mentioned that you established a hit squad.
00:40Is that what you're trying to tell us so we won't be confused?
00:45Can we be very clear?
00:47It's not a death squad.
00:49This is a direct statement.
00:53It's not a death squad.
00:55As long as the people in Davao know that I'm there,
00:59and you commit a heinous crime,
01:04and no one can go to the assailant,
01:11that's me.
01:13What is the structure of that hit squad?
01:17Structure against crime and criminals.
01:21And who are the people?
01:22They all look like dead people, ma'am.
01:24It's okay, sir. What are their names?
01:27I cannot remember the name.
01:29I am 73 years old.
01:33I don't know why I'm here in front of you.
01:37Are there rewards for those 7 people when they are killed?
01:42No, ma'am. They are rich.
01:44There are many assholes who are rich in Davao.
01:47What is the connection between the rich in Davao and the members of the death squad?
01:50They want to die.
01:53Because they want their city to be safe.
01:56Because they want business to thrive.
02:05Call of duty of the president.
02:08That's me.
02:10Because I was the president at the time.
02:13And I didn't just call, Mr. Senator.
02:20I warned all Filipinos.
02:26If you are addicted to drugs,
02:30let it go. Drop it.
02:33Because we will really have problems.
02:37There were murders.
02:39But it was not state-sponsored killing.
02:46But Duterte said that he asked the police to kill the criminals.
02:51He also taught the former police generals who joined the death squad.
02:56All of these on my right side,
03:00were killed by the chief of police, police director.
03:07All of them were commanders of the death squad.
03:14Senator de la Rosa.
03:18That's the death squad.
03:21Because they were police directors
03:25handling the controlling crimes in the city.
03:34So when you say death squad,
03:38it's a very loose term.
03:40I mind very much me being associated with the DDS.
03:44Because during that time when I was the city director of Daba,
03:48it was really a problem for us.
03:50Especially the unsolved killings.
03:53I think he's just joking, sir.
03:59So it's just a matter of taking things on your hand.
04:02He really said it as a joke.
04:04In fact, he went home afterwards.
04:07He said that the police were not part of the death squad.
04:10Earlier, you said that you encouraged the PNP
04:14to encourage the suspect to fight
04:18so that he can be killed.
04:19So that he can say, fight.
04:21Correct.
04:22Correct.
04:23To minimize.
04:24This is very incorrect.
04:25Correct. Yes.
04:26I will go back, sir.
04:28I will do it again.
04:30Double.
04:32Duterte was also in front of the hearing.
04:34Former Senator Laila Drima.
04:36Just one seat between the two.
04:38In front of Drima and the relatives of those who died under the Duterte drug war,
04:42Duterte said that he will not apologize
04:45even though he promises responsibility for the campaign.
04:48Do not question my policies.
04:52Because I offer no apologies, no excuses.
04:59I did what I had to do.
05:04And whether you believe it or not,
05:08I did it for my country.
05:12For all of its successes and shortcomings,
05:18I, and I alone,
05:23take full legal responsibility.
05:28I will be held accountable.
05:30And I will be jailed.
05:32Not the police who followed my orders.
05:35Pity them.
05:37They are just working.
05:39He was inducing, encouraging the killings.
05:45And it cannot just be purely rhetoric.
05:49Because he followed his promises.
05:54He followed his promises that those people should be killed.
05:59Whether they fight or not.
06:02We have yet to answer him.
06:04After all these years.
06:06And these killings had started
06:09when he was still a mayor.
06:12I think that's too much to say that everyone fought.
06:17We don't even have the death penalty.
06:20There is no honor in punishment like tukhang.
06:25It should not be an honor to be called the punisher
06:29when thousands of innocent people, including babies,
06:33have died in your name.
06:35The war on drugs will never increase the number of Filipinos.
06:41Some of the children of those killed in the drug war are in custody.
06:44Including Kian De Los Santos,
06:46a 17-year-old student who was shot and killed by the police in Caloocan
06:50because he fought back in 2017.
06:53It was proven that Kian did not fight the police.
06:58My brother, the President, was dismayed by what happened.
07:02We have yet to get justice.
07:08We won the RTC.
07:10We have yet to get justice.
07:14The discussion heated up when the former President directly asked
07:17if he accepts the full responsibility for Kian's death
07:20and the number of people who were killed in the war on drugs.
07:23I fully take full responsibility for that.
07:26Yes, and what about the result of the police
07:28that thousands of people were killed, including Kian De Los Santos?
07:32Do you also take full responsibility for that, Mr. Chair?
07:35No.
07:36No?
07:37How about Carl Antonino?
07:41Before you ramble on those many things.
07:43No, no, no. I'm not rambling, Mr. Chair.
07:45My questions are very specific.
07:47No, the law is specific.
07:49Guilt is personal.
07:52Ask the lawyer first.
07:54It's okay. I can ask the lawyer.
07:56Go ahead.
07:57Ask him first before we proceed.
07:59No, no, no.
08:00I have prepared these questions with my legislative staff.
08:03Guilt is personal.
08:05Yes, it's very personal.
08:06You can't pass that to others.
08:08No, no, no. This is not passing.
08:10Blue Ribbon is investigating the war on drugs
08:13and the result of extrajudicial killings.
08:16Now, let me ask you about Carl Antonino Nunez.
08:19Do you take responsibility for his death?
08:22You didn't get the policy of the President.
08:26I got the policy, Mr. Cardin.
08:28I was talking about the policy.
08:30I take full responsibility for what I said about the war on drugs.
08:36You said, sir, you can hold me responsible for any death.
08:41Yes, sir. You spoke about specific crimes.
08:45If I say I will take full responsibility,
08:49when we go to court, they won't accept that.
08:54Well, Mr. Chair, and if the resource person could keep his volume and pitch to a normal level.
09:01Mr. Chairman, you're trying to pin me down.
09:03Mr. Chair, you are pinned down by your own statements of October.
09:08No, no, no, Mr. Chair.
09:10I'm not trying to pin you down.
09:13I'm no longer productive.
09:15Do not pin me down on semantics.
09:18Retired Col. Ruyina Garma, who has a good reward system for the police,
09:23also agreed to implement the drug war.
09:25The former Mandaluyong Police Chief, Col. Hector Grijaldo, also agreed.
09:29He said that he was ordered by the House Squad Committee to confirm the so-called reward system.
09:34If Don Fernandez put the paper he was holding on the table and told me,
09:39this is what you will say in this statement.
09:43This is the supplemental statement of Col. Garma.
09:48Tell me that you know the reward system.
09:52Just confirm it.
09:54It's like they want to lie to me, Your Honor.
09:59Congressman Don Fernandez and Benny Abante could deny this.
10:03It was called a lie by Fernandez that Grijaldo put the paper.
10:07According to Fernandez, Grijaldo was called because according to Garma,
10:11he can support his statement about the reward system.
10:14But Grijaldo did not insist on saying that he doesn't know anything about this.
10:18If the statements against them were discredited by the committee,
10:22Abante said that he did not insist on signing any affidavit in exchange for the possibility of promotion.
10:28In the Senate hearing, Ermina Espino alias Mooking also denied Garma's allegation
10:34that when the Assistant Secretary of the Presidential Management Staff was Ermina Espino,
10:37she was the one who issued the funds for the reward system.
10:40Some former PNP chiefs in the Duterte administration, including Senator Bato de la Rosa,
10:45also denied that there was a briefing between them and former Col. Edelberto Leonardo
10:50regarding the drug situation of the country before they became the chief of police.
10:54For GMI Integrated News, I'm Rafi Timang, your witness.
11:04You spoke about a specific crime.
11:06Yes, sir. You spoke about...
11:07If it could be...
11:08You spoke about...
11:09More than 6,000 people have been arrested in drug operations since July 1, 2016 until May 31, 2022.
11:17This is based on the data of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency or PIDEA.
11:21And in these cases, the police and other law enforcement personnel
11:26often defended the drug suspects who were killed.
11:30But there are also cases that the court ruled that the police were responsible.
11:35Just like the case of 17-year-old Kian de los Santos,
11:39who was killed by the police in Caloocan in 2017.
11:42Kian was arrested as a drug runner who was fighting drugs.
11:46But in the decision of the Caloocan Regional Trial Court Branch 125 in 2018,
11:51three police officers were found guilty in the murder of Kian.
11:56And in the case of 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz
12:00and 14-year-old Reynaldo Colut de Guzman,
12:03two police officers were charged with the crime
12:06and one of them was killed while in prison.
12:09Another one was found guilty in the torture and planting of evidence cases in 2022
12:15and the murder in 2023.
12:17And in 2024, the four police officers of the Caloocan Regional Trial Court were convicted
12:22in the case of homicide due to the murder of Luis and Gabrielle Bonifacio
12:27in a drug bybus in September 2016.
12:32In 2021, the International Criminal Court pre-trial Chamber 1
12:37allowed the ICC prosecutor to investigate war drugs
12:40even though the Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2018
12:44and the withdrawal became effective in 2019.
12:48But President Bongbong Marcos and other officials of his administration
12:53said that the Philippines does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.