‘Death squad’: Former president’s desperate new political bid

This former president admitted to using a “death squad”, with an estimated 20,000 killed on his watch. What he’s planning next has many stunned.

He’s been labelled “Asia’s Trump” for his unorthodox leading style, and has come under the spotlight for the deaths of thousands of people during his war against drugs.

And now, controversial former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is planning a comeback that’s more unlikely than Donald Trump’s re-election as US president had once seemed.

Mr Duterte has announced he is aiming to return as mayor of Davao City, located 965 kilometres from the capital Manila on the southern island of Mindanao. Here, the 79-year-old held power for 22 years, prior to his presidency between 2016 and 2022.

A crowd roared as he revealed: “I want to serve you. Davao is better than yesterday”.

His political return is believed to a bid to garner support for his family against another famous political dynasty in the archipelago nation – the Marcoses.

The two families – the Marcoses and the Dutertes – had joined together when Duterte’s daughter Sara Duterte-Carpoi and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ran together for vice president and president.

The duo were successful and came into power in 2022, however their alliance is crumbling as Duterte-Carpoi faces calls for her impeachment, CNN reports. Mrs Duterte-Carpio denies claims of alleged corruption and now the partnership has descended into public tirades.

Mr Duterte has also called Mr Marcos a “drug addict” and made threats to remove him from power, while Mrs Duterte-Caprio said she wanted to “chop his head off”.

Philippines' former president Rodrigo Duterte is aiming for a political return. Picture: AFP/Presidential Photo Division

Protesters wearing masks depicting victims of extra judicial killings take part in a demonstration in Manila. Picture: Ted Aljine/AFP

Meanwhile, Marcos said he “always thought that we were” friends but perhaps had been “deceived”.

The main point of contention is how the nation should balance its relationships with the US and China.

Richard Heydarian, senior lecturer at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines, said Mr Duterte made the political move to boost his family’s defences and keep them politically relevant.

It’s essentially a “fight to the death”, analysts have declared.

“The Dutertes are at their most vulnerable moment in almost a decade,” Mr Heydarian said.

Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Picture: Nhac Nguyen/AFP

Sara Duterte gestures to supporters. Picture: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

‘Death squads’

Mr Duterte last month declared that he had used a “death squad” to control crime when he was Davao mayor. During a Senate inquiry into his war on drugs, he pointed at former police officers as leaders of that death squad.

However, he later said that police didn’t make up the squad, instead stating it was comprised of gangsters.

Mr Duterte had spent years denying the existence of such a squad.

“I can make the confession now if you want,” Mr Duterte said. “I had a death squad of seven, but they were not police, they were gangsters.”

The Philippine police will investigate the claim.

Analyn Roxas and her sister, cry as her partner, Valien Mendoza, a suspected drug dealer, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Manila in 2017. Picture: Noel Celis/AFP

Rodrigo Duterte with leaders including Donald Trump and former Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

According to police data, more than 6200 people died in anti-drug operations under Mr Duterte’s presidency, with police saying they killed suspects in self-defence.

However, human rights groups estimate a far greater number of more than 20,000 were killed while Mr Duterte was leader, with around 1400 suspicious killings in Davao while he was mayor and then many more when he became president. This triggered an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation in 2021 as a possible crime against humanity.

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte takes an oath as he attends a senate probe on the drug war during his administration on October 28, 2024. Picture: Jam Sta Rosa/AFP

“[Mr] Duterte’s admissions were very, very damaging. It will have a major weight in the decision of the ICC,” human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares told Reuters.

“He admitted practically the elements of crime against humanity.”

On Wednesday, Mr Duterte said he was ready to face the ICC and told prosecutors to “hurry up”, pushing for the investigation to “start tomorrow” while threatening to kick anyone from the ICC who came to face him.

The coffin of three-year-old Kateleen Myca Ulpina, who was shot dead by police officers conducting a drug raid targeting her father. Picture: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Children hold pictures of their loved ones killed during a mass held for victims of the drug war on February 2, 2017 in Manila. Picture: Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images

Sexist outbursts and wild statements

Mr Duterte has a history of making controversial comments, and has jailed political rivals. He called Barack Obama a “son of a w***e in 2016, and said in 2017 that the Catholic Church was “full of s***”.

And 2018 he told soldiers to shoot female communist rebels in the vagina, adding they would be “useless” without them.

The same year while in front of an audience comprised almost exclusively of female police and army staff, Mr Duterte called them “b*****s” and “crazy women” who were “depriving [him] of [his] freedom of expression”.

Women at the event were being celebrated for their efforts in law enforcement and national security, and Mr Duterte began to address them with: “Puta (b*****s), you know you women are depriving me of my freedom of expression. You criticise every sentence or word I say, but that is my freedom to express myself.”

The Dutertes’ ties with the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church Pastor Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is wanted by the FBI for alleged sex trafficking, is also problematic.