Former senator Leila de Lima, right, speaks beside former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, during a senate inquiry on the so-called war on drugs during his administration at the Philippine Senate Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Former president Rodrigo Duterte told a Senate inquiry that he had maintained a “death squad” of gangsters to kill other criminals when he was mayor of a southern Philippine city.
Duterte, however, denied authorising police to gun down thousands of suspects in a bloody crackdown on illegal drugs he had ordered as president and which is the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity.
