‘You son of a b**ch, you survived’: Duterte admits ordering assassination attempt on politician

The claim was shocking even by the standards of the strongman nicknamed “The Punisher”, known for his inflammatory rhetoric and violent crackdown on drugs and crime that has left thousands dead in extrajudicial killings.

Mr Duterte made the comment in a speech on Tuesday night at the presidential palace in Manila, The Times reports, where he railed against drug-related corruption in Philippine politics.

He reportedly named two mayors who were killed by police after he accused them of drug crimes — Rolando Espinosa in 2016 and Reynaldo Parojinog in 2017 — before naming mayor and former general Vicente Loot.

“General Loot, you son of a b**ch,” Mr Duterte said. “I ambushed you, you animal, and you still survived.”

Mr Loot, mayor of Daanbantayan in the central Philippines province of Cebu, survived an attack by around five Tagalog-speaking armed men in the village of Maya on May 13 last year.

He was disembarking from a boat with his family just after 7am when the men approached and fired at them, local media reported. He and his family were unhurt but his two drivers, a helper and a wharf porter were injured.

Mr Loot and the other two slain mayors were on a list of more than 100 politicians Mr Duterte read out live on air soon after taking office, accusing them of being involved in drug trafficking.

In December, Mr Duterte denied any involvement in the attack on Mr Loot, who has denied being involved in the drug trade. At the time, he said he suspected “bounty hunters” were behind the incident.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo on Wednesday told The Times Mr Duterte had meant to say “You were ambushed” and not “I ambushed you”, noting the President was not a native speaker of the Filipino language but of Visayan, which is spoken mainly in the southern and central Philippines.

“It is silly and absurd to conclude that he is behind the ambush just because he misspeaks the Filipino language, which is not his native tongue or first language,” Mr Panelo told the paper.

‘WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE’

Mr Duterte’s comments came as he renewed an offer of big bounties for hundreds of convicted murderers and rapists set free in a corrections bureau blunder and said he would be happier if they were caught dead rather than alive.

The release under a good behaviour reward program of more than 1700 criminals guilty of dangerous offences has been a huge embarrassment for the crime-busting former mayor who was elected almost entirely on promises to make the streets safer.

Mr Duterte said there was a “prize” of a million pesos ($27,985) for each of the former felons still at large after less than 700 of them heeded his call for their surrender.

“The one million prize is available to those who can capture them dead or alive. But maybe dead would be a better option. I will pay you smiling,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr Duterte is a former prosecutor notorious for a deadly war on drugs that has caused international alarm and countless urban legends of his gangster-style approach to fighting criminal enemies during his 22 years as mayor of Davao City.

His latest remarks are likely to outrage opponents who accuse him of deliberately using rhetoric that incites vigilantism. His office rejects that and says his tough talk is endearing to millions of Filipinos. The good conduct law was passed under Mr Duterte’s predecessor to try to reduce the populations of some of the world’s most crowded jails.

More than 21,000 inmates were released, but justice ministry officials say more than 2000 of them were sentenced for crimes like rape, drugs, murder, bribery, plunder, kidnapping and arson, and therefore they were not eligible for release. Some 1700 of them were freed by a corrections bureau run by Mr Duterte’s appointees, two of them his staunch loyalists.

— with Reuters