DUTERTE PAID ME TO KILL CRIMINALS, FORMER COP SAYS

MANILA A retired Philippine police officer said Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was a mayor, ordered and paid him and other members of a socalled liquidation squad to kill criminals and opponents, including a kidnapping suspect, his family and a critical radio commentator.

Human rights lawyers who presented Arthur Lascanas, pictured, at a news conference said the allegations could be grounds for impeaching Duterte, adding that his alleged role in the killings may not be covered by his presidential immunity.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who helped the lawyers from the private Free Legal Assistance Group present Lascanas in a news conference at the Senate, said he would ask his colleagues to immediately investigate the allegations.

Duterte’s communications secretary, Martin Andanar, dismissed the claims as a “demolition job” by unspecified people affected by Duterte’s reforms. He did not respond to Lascanas’s detailed claims.