Duterte lambasts female senator for criticizing war on drugs

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte hit back at a lady senator who criticized his campaign against illegal drugs amid the rising number of extrajudicial killings and alleged human rights violations.

Duterte failed to name the senator whom he accused of having an illicit affair with her driver, who also poses as collector of drug money during the campaign period.

“She is an immoral woman, and as far as the wife of the driver is concerned, she committed adultery… (she also) funded a house for his lover but we never complained,” Duterte said in his speech at the 116th police service anniversary of the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame on Wednesday.

Duterte said that the senator also investigated him during the campaign season for his alleged connection to the Davao Death Squad (DDS) and human rights violations.

He said the senator also bragged that she has an evidence that would pin him down.

“She said ‘I will prove that Duterte is connected to DDS,’ but until now she keeps on yakking and she has forgotten about the tape i have recorded,” Duterte said.

Duterte's attack came following Sen. Leila de Lima's resolution filed at the Senate seeking to investigate the killings since the president assumed office.

De Lima, who formerly headed the Commission on Human Rights before she was appointed Justice secretary, earlier urged Duterte to follow the developments of the Senate inquiry into the rising number of killings of alleged drug dealers. — Video report by Efigenio Toledo IV