Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to throw corrupt officials from helicopters mid-air, saying he has done it before.<\/p>\n
“If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila and I will throw you out,” said Mr Duterte, who is waging war on corruption and drugs.<\/p>\n
It’s the latest claim by the president that he has personally carried out extra-judicial killings.<\/p>\n
His spokesman played down the remarks, which he described as “urban legend”.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month another spokesman Martin Andanar said his blunt-speaking boss<\/a> should be taken “seriously but not literally” when he said he had shot dead three men while mayor of Davao.<\/p>\n Mr Duterte made his latest comments in a speech to victims of a typhoon in the central Philippines on Tuesday. A video clip of his remarks was posted by his office.<\/p>\n He threatened the helicopter punishment for anyone who might steal the financial aid he was promising.<\/p>\n “I have done this before, why would I not do it again?” he said to applause.<\/p>\n He suggested his victim or victims were kidnappers who had murdered a hostage.<\/a> It is not clear when or where the incident took place.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the president appeared to distance himself from his earlier remarks.<\/p>\n “Helicopter to throw a person? And if that is true, I will not admit it,” he said in an interview with ABS-CBN news.<\/p>\n The president has made a similar claims in the past – and has a history of contradicting himself.<\/p>\n On 16 December he told the BBC he had shot dead three criminal suspects while he was mayor of Davao.<\/p>\n “I killed about three of them… I don’t know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies. It happened and I cannot lie about it.”<\/p>\n He made a similar claim to business leaders in Manila a few days earlier, when he said he used to cruise Davao on a motorbike “looking for a confrontation so I could kill.”<\/p>\n Mr Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao for two decades, presiding over a big fall in crime but also being accused of sponsoring death squads.<\/p>\n As president he has pledged to root out drugs and corruption in the Philippines, at the cost of millions of lives<\/a> if necessary.<\/p>\n Nearly 6,000 people are said to have been killed by police, vigilantes and mercenaries in the Philippines since Mr Duterte launched a war on drugs after being elected in May.<\/p>\n Opposition politicians and human rights groups have called for his impeachment, but he remains very popular with voters who want him to clean up the country.<\/p>\n Last week the Philippines independent human rights watchdog said it would investigate<\/a> President Duterte’s claims that he personally killed drug suspects.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"