Philippine President RodrigoDuterte risks impeachment after he admitted “personally” killing criminals when he was the mayor of Davao City, said two Philippine senators.
The firebrand leader boasted to business leaders on Monday that as Davao City mayor he used to prowl the streets on a bigmotorcycle looking for “an encounter to kill” just to show tolocal law enforcers he can do it.
“I used to do it personally,” Duterte said. “If I can do itwhy can't you?"
ADVERTISEMENT
More than 2,000 people have been killed in police anti-drugoperations since Mr. Duterte became president in July. Almost allwere shot when they resisted arrest.
Another 3,000 deaths are under investigation, with criticscalling them vigilante killings.
Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Mr. Duterte, said the President's admission could be a ground for impeachment.
ADVERTISEMENT
“That is betrayal of public trust and that constitutes highcrimes because mass murders certainly fall into the category o fhigh crimes. And high crimes is a ground for impeachment underthe constitution,” Mr. de Lima told CNN on Thursday.
Senator Richard Gordon, who heads the senate justice committee, also said Duterte opened himself to possible impeachment proceedings following his controversial comments.
“When he says that, he's opening himself up, so what's the legal way, then go ahead and impeach him,” he told reporters, adding he was not surprised by the statement.
Duterte's allies in Congress dared the president's opponentsand critics to file an impeachment motion, saying removing the leader through a political process is a numbers game.
There are less than 50 opposition lawmakers in the 293-member lower house of Congress. A two-thirds vote is needed to impeach a president.
Peter Wallace, who organised the business forum where Duterte spoke, thought the president's statement was his “usualbravado.”
“He talked as he often does about drugs, and killings and criminality. And we had expected that he would but we were therenot to listen to that,” Mr. Wallace told Reuters by phone.
“We were there to talk to him or listen to him aboutbusiness issues and I was pleased that...he moved on to thosesubjects,” he said.
Justice Minister Vitaliano Aguirre dismissed Duterte's statement as an exaggeration.
“It's like a hyperbole, that's the president, he is used toexaggerate just to put his message across,” Aguirre was quotedin radio reports as saying on Thursday.
Even if that were true, Mr. Aquirre said it did not necessarily mean that he violated the law.
“It could be done with a justifiable cause and justified circumstances as a public officer in order to arrest but if they resisted. He must have been forced,” Mr. Aquirre said, referring to Duterte.