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MANILA - The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has formed a special fact-finding team to investigate Davao City Mayor Ridrigo Duterte supposed role in executing outlaws in his city.
CHR chairperson Chito Gascon said Saturday that this measure was triggered by Duterte's own repeated admission of playing an active role in killing several persons tagged in heinous crimes.
In an interview on radio dzMM's "Ikaw Na Ba? Para Sa Pamilyang Pilipino" Wednesday, Duterte recalled the instance when he shot to death three men who abducted a Chinese girl.
Duterte in a speech after the PDP-Laban launched his tandem with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano last month, has also hinted at how he punishes drug traffickers.
"Sabi ko, do not go to Davao, you will die. Iyung iba pumunta talaga roon, they died... Noong andoon na sila, sprawled there, sabi ko itugtog ninyo ang Mona Lisa, iyan ang theme song ng mga animal na ito. 'Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, and you die there and you die there,'" the presidential aspirant said.
Gascon said the CHR fact-finding team will start gathering complaints of human rights violation against Davao's local chief executive.
The investigating body will also search for possible prior cases against Duterte.
The CHR urged possible victims of summary executions headed by the mayor to surface.
The group also reiterated its appeal to Department of Justice (DOJ) and Philippine National Police to conduct a separate probe on Duterte.
The Human Rights Watch earlier denounced the allegedly Duterte-led Davao Death Squad (DDS) that has committed over 1,000 killings since the late 1990s.
Amnesty International (AI) Philippines has likewise said it is "bothered" by the presidential candidacy of Duterte. -- Report from Dennis Datu, radio dzMM
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