Duterte decries EJK tag: 'I've been demonized'

MANILA, Philippines — Amid mounting criticisms over the spate of killings under his deadly drug war, President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday maintained he has never encouraged extrajudicial killings and decried being “demonized” by his critics.

“I know that I have been demonized and well, of course, I will assure you upon my oath as a lawyer and before God that some are true and some are not,” Duterte said in his speech before Southeast Asian justices, judges and lawyers in an event in Malacañan.

“The extrajudicial tag that has been placed on me is simply not true,” he added.

READ: EJK in Philippines? Duterte gives contradicting answers

But on the same occasion, Duterte threatened anew to kill suspected drug personalities should they continue to get involved in narco-trafficking.

“I will kill you, make no mistake about it, I will kill you,” he remarked.

Duterte—who easily won the race to Malacañang last year on a promise to use deadly force to wipe out crime and drugs—has stoked international alarm for activating his fierce anti-drug campaign.

Human rights watchdogs said most of the fatalities are extrajudicial killings committed by cops and unknown assailants—a claim that the government has vehemently denied by insisting that police are only killing in self-defense while gangsters are silencing potential witnesses.

Filipinos have mostly backed Duterte’s drug war even as critics condemned the wave of killings. But the recent deaths of three teenagers in the country’s capital have triggered rare street protests and highlighted concerns about alleged police abuse.

According to Duterte, the country’s drug problem flourished during the time of former Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. But he said it was only during Aquino’s presidency when the country turned into a “narco-state.”

He also reiterated his reminder to police to only pull the trigger when their life is in danger, adding that based on his experience as Davao City mayor, all drug suspects possess guns and are violently resisting arrests.

While admitting that there had been killings in the brutal crackdown, Duterte also slammed his political opponents whom he accused of spreading “fake news” regarding the death toll in the anti-drug campaign.

“Most of the victims who were killed and according to the bright guys of this country and the political opposition—the guys who cannot accept defeat—they invented the fake news and concocted figures,” Duterte said.

“I did not tell any policeman for the life of me to kill everybody perhaps sitting down or kneeling in front of the police with his hands outstretched in surrender. That is really murder,” he added.

According to police data, there have been 6,225 drug-related deaths between July 2016 and September 2017, contrasting estimates by administration critics and human rights organizations that reach as high as 13,000.

The police said 3,850 have "died in police operations," suggesting these are drug suspects who engaged arresting officers in shootouts. Meanwhile, another 2,290 "deaths under investigation," have already been determined to be "drug-related."

Duterte last December drew flak after he indicated that he had given instructions to plant guns to show that drug suspects offered violent resistance.

WATCH: Did Duterte encourage killing of drug suspects?

In July, the firebrand leader, apparently in jest, said security forces should make criminals fight back to justify the possible use of violence.