Appearing before the Lower House Quad Committee former President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday (November 13) said he is ready to face investigators of International Criminal Court, saying they have to swiftly conduct the probe into allegations of crimes against humanity leveled against him.

After skipping previous hearings, Duterte made a last minute decision to appear before the Lower House committee that has initiated a legislative inquiry into allegations of extra-judicial killings committed during the blood drug war the former president launched in 2016.

Gabriela Partylist Rep. Arlene Brosas asked the former chief executive if he will voluntarily cooperate with the ICC investigation, which Duterte had dodged by making the Philippines move out from its membership list.

Duterte’s response: “ I am asking the ICC to hurry up and if possible, they can come here and start the investigation tomorrow.”

At the QuadComm hearing, Duterte gave the impression that he has grown impatient at the supposedly slow-moving ICC probe on the deaths of over 6,000 Filipinos during a three-year drug war he started.

“So I am asking the ICC, through you, na magpunta na sila dito, bukas. Umpisahan na nila ang investigation. If I am found guilty, I will go to prison and rot there for all time,” said the 79-year old former Davao City mayor.

He said: ‘This issue has been left hanging for so many years. Matagal, maam, baka mamatay na ako hindi na nila ako maimbestiga.”

At the Quad Comm Duterte merely repeated many of what he had already told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee late last month, stressing that he is committed to assume full responsibility for the deaths of suspected criminal during the drug war.

While Duterte was testifying, relatives of over 200 people allegedly summarily killed by Duterte’s police were watching the proceedings in a room provided by the Lower House.

The jampacked room jeered at the former president as the TV monitor showed him entering the Lower House. All of them claimed their relatives their slain relative were innocent and that they were victims of summary execution.

Duterte had claimed that police operatives were given no recourse but to kill in defense of themselves.


“Self-defense is when you defend yourself to avoid injury, serious, or you die. That is applicable also to a policeman who is performing his duty because the policeman has to confront,” he said.