MANILA, Philippines — For Senator Leila De Lima, President Rodrigo Duterte is normalizing killing as a “state policy.”
“Killing is not normal but Duterte is normalizing it as state policy,” De Lima said in a statement released Friday.
“We should resist it. We should be outraged that the highest official of the land is boasting of his killing adventure in the past and even now.”
During a testimonial dinner for outgoing House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday, Duterte said he had “killed” for the former chief executive because he thought she liked it.
READ: Duterte: I ‘killed’ because I thought Arroyo liked it
De Lima, a staunch Duterte critic also labeled the President as Arroyo’s puppet who is “ready to do anything, even to kill people, so as to please her and advance their evil political agenda.”
“All these daily killings we see now have become so emboldened because Duterte has enabled it. He should be held accountable, along with those who conspired and encouraged his policy of killing people,” De Lima added.
“Our people are getting killed every day, and this should be more than enough reason for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to begin their investigation now.” /muf