MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte again referred to hiring a gunman during a speech in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday, as she argued that not all killings attributed to her father’s drug war could be conclusively linked to the antinarcotics campaign.
Speaking to supporters outside the International Criminal Court detention center, where former President Rodrigo Duterte is being detained over alleged crimes against humanity linked to his administration’s drug war, the vice president gave an example involving a hypothetical killing.
“I have a husband. My husband has a mistress. I can hire a gunman for P5,000 to kill the mistress,” Duterte said. “That is how bad gun violence in the Philippines is. And that is, again, yes, EJK (extrajudicial killings).”
Duterte used the example to question whether all deaths listed in connection with the drug war should automatically be considered victims of the campaign.
“So how can you say that all your listed victims, all your listed complainants, are supposedly victims of the drug war?” she said. “How can they say now that all the victims there are victims of the drug war? That it is supposed to be a crime against humanity?”
Government records put the number of people killed in police operations during the drug war at about 6,000. Human rights groups have estimated that as many as 30,000 people died, including children.
Duterte’s remarks came as she faces an impeachment trial in the Philippines. One of the four impeachment articles concerns statements she made in November 2024 about allegedly contacting a person to arrange the killing of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and then House Speaker Martin Romualdez if an alleged plot against her succeeded.
The vice president has denied that she was making an actual threat against the three officials.
Members of the House prosecution team in the impeachment trial responded to Duterte’s latest remarks Thursday.
Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon questioned whether the P5,000 amount Duterte cited had any connection to the threats she made in 2024.
“Was that the price set by our Vice President when she threatened the life of the President and his family? Was the President’s life worth only P5,000?” Ridon said.
Ridon also criticized Duterte for discussing threats while facing allegations related to threats.
“She’s being prosecuted today on threats; the last thing I think any person being investigated on threats would do would be to talk about threats,” he said.
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson for the House prosecution team, said Duterte’s remarks raised questions about how she knew details about hiring gunmen.
“I do not want to consider or even think that our Vice President seems to have a mastery over this kind of issue,” Adiong said.
“But the opposite is showing. She herself is giving the scenario and the first question that would form in our people’s minds is: how was she able to know these things in such detail?” he added.
