Outcry as Filipino presidential nominee admits killings

MANILA - The front-runner for the presidential race in the Philippines has admitted on national radio that he killed at least three men suspected of kidnapping and rape in his city, drawing condemnation from international rights groups who warned against an escalating “culture of impunity” in the country.

Amnesty International urged Philippine prosecutors on Friday to look into Rodrigo Duterte, mayor of the southern city of Davao, who said in an interview that shooting “criminals” is justifiable.

“It’s a graphic example [of the culture of impunity in the Philippines] that even though people know what he has been doing, no single charge has been filed against him,” Ritz Lee Santos III, head of Amnesty in the Philippines, said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

“Human rights is not a joke,” Santos added.

In an interview with  on Wednesday, Duterte recounted that three months into his first term as mayor in 1988, three rape and kidnapping suspects had demanded a ransom from the family of the victim.

Duterte, 70, said that when the armed suspects showed up to collect the money, he did not hesitate in shooting them dead.

“I was part of it. Actually, I was the most active and I even emptied two magazines of my .45 [handgun] ,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.