Duterte to drug users, criminals: Go to hell, meet me there

Former resident Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Senate probe into his administration’s war on drugs on Monday, October 28, 2024  (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte, in his profanity-laced-testimony on Monday, said he does not intend to save drug users and suspects, daring them instead to go to hell and meet him there. 

Duterte made the remark after Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked — during the Senate subcommittee probe into the previous administration’s drug war — whether drug users and drug criminals deserve to die rather than be jailed. 

“Para i-paraphrase ko si Patricia Evangelista: Do some people need killing?” asked Hontiveros. 

(To paraphrase Patricia Evangelista: Do some people need killing?)

Duterte promptly replied that he does not intend to waste money on drug users and criminals when he could use it to help Filipinos in need. 

“Presidente ako, nagagastos ako sa gobyerno. Bakit ako magbubuhay sa mga p ***** i**** ‘yan? Kung yung pera na ipakain ko riyan sa mga preso ay ibigay ko na lang sa mga tao riyan sa walang bigas, walang trabaho,” said Duterte. 

(I am a President. I spend money from the government. Why would I waste money on these SOBs?  Instead of wasting money for their meals,  I’ll give it to those who cannot buy rice and have no jobs.)

Hontiveros then categorically asked whether these individuals deserved to be killed rather than be jailed.

“Wala akong paki alam sa kriminal kung saan silang impyerno gustong pumunta. You make your own history on this planet. Yun ang gusto nilang mangyari, doon sila sa impyerno at doon tayo magkita,” said Duterte. 

(I don’t care about criminals, wherever hell they intend to go. You make your own history on this planet. That’s what they want to happen, go to hell and meet me there.)

Hontiveros, in return, answered that the Senate has no jurisdiction over hell, adding that the upper chamber can only investigate in the Philippines. 

“But doon tayo pupunta (That’s where we’re going),” Duterte insisted. 

“Well, wala po akong ambisyon na pumuntang impyerno pa (I don’t intend to go to hell),” Hontiveros quipped. 

Hontiveros said she is hoping that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is monitoring the hearing as Duterte had revealed many criminal acts.

One of the bombshell revelations dropped by Duterte during the hearing was that he ordered his policemen to “encourage suspected criminals to fight back” so that they could be “killed.”

It was the first time that Duterte faced a Congressional probe into his brutal anti-drug campaign.  

In the first 17 months of the former president’s administration alone, over 20,000 deaths have already been listed, based on a report attributed to the Office of the President in 2017.