Duterte to ICC probers: I welcome you

President Rodrigo Duterte Photo from an RTVM video

Go ahead, I welcome you.

This was how President Rodrigo Duterte reacted on Friday to the news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) would conduct a preliminary examination into the crimes allegedly committed under the government’s brutal war on drugs.

“I hope you come. And I hope that we can be together in a room. I would ask for that rare privilege of talking to you, the two of us in the room,” Duterte said in a press briefing in Davao City.

“I welcome you. And if you want to find me guilty, go ahead. So be it. Find a country where they killed people in a firing squad and I am ready,” he added.

The ICC on Thursday confirmed that it was set to start a preliminary examination on the crime against humanities allegedly committed by the Duterte administration in its brutal war on drugs.

READ: ICC vows to work independently in examining PH drug deaths

“Kaya itong si prosecutor nandito, pakita mo sa kanya iyan [That is why the prosecutor is here. Show that to him]. The mayor of Davao City says or the former mayor of Davao City, you better read. Are you also worried about the lives of the criminals? Then, take a look at the miserable agony of my country. These guys are going there because they have no money to send them to go to school,” he said. /jpv