Briana Koeneman
The UN Puts Pressure On Philippines To Investigate President Duterte
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has bragged about killing criminals himself.
LEARN MOREPosted: 6:56 a.m. EST Dec 29, 2016
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to toss corrupt government officials out of a helicopter, saying he's done it before and has no problem doing it again.
"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?" Duterte said.
Duterte made the claim during a speech in the central Philippines on Tuesday. Local media say he hurled a suspected kidnapper from a flying copter back when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao.
This is far from the first time Duterte has publicly admitted to killing people.
"I killed about three of them, because there were three of them. I don't know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies," Duterte told the BBC.
But Duterte's spokesperson later told reporters this latest claim is "urban legend."
And Duterte himself backtracked on his comments during an interview with ABS-CBN on Thursday, saying, "It's not true that I threw people off helicopters. ... If it were true, I won't admit it."
According to several estimates, more than 6,000 people have been killed since Duterte took office in July and vowed to crack down on drug dealers and users.
