Duterte admits threat to throw corrupt execs off chopper a ‘hyperbole’

Former President Rodrigo Duterte attends the House quad comm hearing on Nov. 13, 2024. (Photo from House of Representatives Media Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted that his threat to throw corrupt government officials from a helicopter was only a made-up story and a “hyperbole.”

At the House of Representatives’ quad committee hearing on Wednesday, Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. asked Duterte for details about this threat.

“You said publicly, and I quote: ‘If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila, and I will throw you out.  I have done this before, why would I not do it again?’  I would like to just mention the words ‘I have done this before, why would I not do it again?’ I feel you are justified in doing so, because you think they were corrupt,” Abante said.

“No sir, that’s just a hyperbole. No pilot would allow that,” Duterte replied in Filipino.

Abante pressed further, asking who was the corrupt official that Duterte wanted to throw off the helicopter.

“So if you feel justified in doing it, can you please name to us the victim? Who was it that you threw from the helicopter?  You said it, ‘I have done this before, why would I not do it again?.’ Who was this? Can you please name the victim? Or were you joking?” Abante asked.

“Well, sir, I said it was just a story for the criminals. But how would I throw someone, I will open the door?  It’s just a hyperbole,” Duterte said in Filipino.

The hearing pushed through after it was initially canceled because the quad panel wanted to maximize Duterte’s presence as the committee is not sure when the former president will be available again.

In the first four hours of the inquiry, Duterte was quizzed about the drug war and alleged extrajudicial killings committed during the campaign.

Earlier, Duterte reiterated that he killed six or seven people when he was Davao City mayor, noting that he roamed the city waiting for a chance to kill criminals.

Duterte also said there were instances, while he was Davao mayor, that he had police officers who committed crimes killed.

“You know in all honesty, I have also killed a lot of police officers in Davao, those who are criminals. Go ask people in Davao. Go around and you ask, I myself killed them. Face-to-face,” he said in Filipino.

“I killed many rotten police officers, those who kidnap people, rape, and then kill. I told them, once I caught up with you, I would really kill you. All of them, it goes for the law enforcers, the soldiers, all, even civilians,” he added.

Revelations from former police officials, like retired colonel Royina Garma’s claims about the existence of a rewards system in the Duterte administration’s drug war, have bolstered lawmakers’ belief that there were irregularities in the operations.

According to Garma, Duterte called her in 2016 about the creation of a task force that would implement the so-called Davao template on a nationwide scale.  The Davao template, Garma said, involved providing cash grants worth P20,000 to P1 million to cops who killed drug suspects.

READ: Garma says Davao drug war template, rewards system applied in entire PH

Garma also claimed that the Davao Death Squad, a team that Duterte supposedly crafted, was common knowledge among police officers in Davao.

READ: Duterte admits to having ‘death squad,’ later insists it’s not one