Duterte defends police accused of killing drug-linked mayor
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte staunchly defended on Wednesday more than two dozen policemen who were accused by the government’s main investigation agency of killing a jailed mayor linked to illegal drugs.
Duterte said he still believes the accounts of the policemen, who said Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and another inmate, Raul Yap, died in their cells when they shot it out with police during a Nov. 5 raid in a jail in central Leyte province. The president said he was willing to go to jail for his policemen.
After weeks of investigation, the National Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday it determined that the two inmates died in a police “rubout” and not a shootout. The NBI, the equivalent of America’s FBI, said the policemen likely placed pistols and illegal drugs in the cells of the two slain inmates to justify the police raid.
“What the police stated is the truth for me,” Duterte said in a speech Wednesday. He added that he would not allow the policemen to go to jail.