Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte 'ordered killing of 1,000 people and fed enemies to crocodiles'
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the killings of more than 1,000 people and fed his enemies to crocodiles while a city mayor in the country, it has been claimed.
His former hit-man, Edgar Matobato, told a senate hearing into Duterte'songoing anti-crime crackdown that the then Davao city mayor had criminals thrown in the sea after having their stomachs slashed so they wouldn't float to the surface.
Matobato also claimed to have overheard Duterte order the bombing of mosques in Davao as retaliation for an attack on a cathedral.
"Our job was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers," said the 57-year-old, who admitted to killing more than 50 people while working for a "Davao Death Squad".
"They were killed like chickens," he told the televised hearing.
Rights groups have documented some 1,400 suspicious killings in Davao since the early 1990s and critics say the bloody war on drugs Duterte has unleashed since taking office on June 30 bears the same hallmarks.
In a series of controversial speeches during his election campaign he appeared to encourage extrajudicial killings.
More than 3,500 people, or about 47 per day, have been killed in the past 10 weeks, some 58 percent by unknown assailants and the rest in legitimate police operations, according to police.
Duterte has frequently denied involvement in any vigilantism as both mayor and president. The existence of Davao death squads has never been proven.
Matobato told the hearing that one man was fed to a crocodile and most victims were cut into pieces and buried in a mass grave at a quarry.
Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said hedid not believe Rodrigo Duterte was capable of ordering the killings and investigations had proved him innocent.
Rodrigo Duterte's eldest son and current Davao vice mayor, Paolo Duterte, issued a statement rejecting Matobato's testimony, which he said was "all based on hearsays".
The United Nations and United States have expressed concern about Duterte's latest crackdown on drugs and crime, which provoked an angry response from Duterte.
He said it would be "rude" for President Obama to discuss human rights abuses at a planned meeting at the ASEAN Summit in Laos, before calling Obama "a son of a whore".
Mr Obama initially cancelled the meeting but later agreed to meet the Philippine President, saying he didn't take the remark personally.