Du30 won’t back down on Senate

Former president Rodrigo Duterte said he is willing to attend another Senate hearing if he is called but he would continue to maintain that no extrajudicial killings (EJK) happened during his war on drugs.

“They wanted to know about EJK, I told them there was nothing to tell them. There were many who died, and even if they repeatedly say it, I will still tell them that summary killings never happened,” he told reporters on Saturday during his visit to the tombs of his parents at the Wireless Catholic Cemetery in Davao City.

But Duterte said he would attend depending on his health.

He insisted that no EJKs happened during his term as president, even though he admitted that he maintained a death squad when he was mayor of Davao City.

However, Duterte said he will not attend the hearing of the House of Representatives Quad Committee on the drug war since he had told everything at the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee hearing last week.

“If they want to know then they should listen to the tape of the Senate proceedings. It must be alien to the main topic,” Duterte said in the media interview that was aired over the FPRRD Supporters Facebook page.

Earlier, House lawmakers urged the senators to submit the affidavits and recordings from the Senate hearing to the International Criminal Court following Duterte’s admission of responsibility for the deaths of thousands of drug suspects during his administration.

House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said Duterte’s admission that he urged police to encourage drug suspects to resist arrest to justify the use of lethal force was a “clear violation of human rights and due process,” warranting ICC scrutiny.