Jude Josue Sabio IN a rambling speech delivered in Davao City after returning from a state visit to Vietnam, Digong haughtily announced that he is like Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany that sparked the Second World War. Digong dangerously said: “There are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I’d be happy to slaughter them.” “If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have…,” he said, pausing and pointing to himself. Instantaneously, this brings to mind his public statements repeated over and over again.  He admitted having killed more than a thousand, in answer to a  reporter’s query pertaining a report that he has killed 700 or more in Davao.  He also said that he would  kill a hundred thousand more drug pushers if he is voted as president. In reaction to the post-Vietnam visit speech of Digong, Etta Rosales, the former CHR chief, was cautious in her critical comment, courteously conceding that Digong’s statement could just be a joke, as she said Digong is used to claim when hounded by a controversial statement.  But Digong’s repeated public declarations unmistakably can only mean one incontrovertible thing, and that is, it is his avowed public policy to kill criminals. Digong earlier said that he is the Davao Death Squad, which should therefore be more fittingly called Duterte Death Squad.  According to Edgar Matobato in his Senate testimony, Digong as mayor before has killed a thousand or even more in Davao City.  In a public statement, Digong recounted to then President Arroyo that it is the “best practice” to eradicate criminality, bragging that it has made Davao City the ninth safest city in the world. Indeed, that Digong aka Charlie Mike would be happy to slaughter the three million drug addicts, just like what Hitler did to Jews in the Holocaust, can only mean that it is  just a natural, logical, continuing expression of his public policy of killing, if not mass murder.  He has been articulating this public policy all along in public so many times that it is the height of stupidity  to even think that his recent statement is still just a joke.  By any standard, his words are scandalously true, as backed up by the Davao Death Squad in Davao City which is being replicated in the whole country. As a matter of sordid fact, the “kill list” is mounting, making his public policy intent resoundingly and unmistakably clear.  Not only will Digong kill 100,000 drug pushers as he earlier announced,  but he would also be happy to slaughter three million more addicts just like what Hitler mercilessly did to the Jews in the Holocaust. After all, Digong considers drug addicts as non-human and zombies with shrunk brains who are therefore not entitled to human rights. In the apt words of Sen. Antonio Trillanes, Digong is a “mass murderer” which fits Digong perfectly well, because he compares himself to Hitler. One begins to wonder if Digong would construct gas chambers to copy the practice of Hitler, instead of drug rehabilitation centers as earlier announced by the Duterte administration. Undoubtedly, the personal comparison of Digong by himself to Hitler is extremely dangerous, as it no doubt reinforces in the public mind a public policy of killing of a sitting president. In his time, Hitler also made countless vitriolic statements of hate against the Jews before acquiring power, which he in fact adopted and implemented, after gaining power, as a policy dubbed  “Final Solution” to the Jewish Question. Just like in the case of Hitler, Digong’s obvious public policy of killing is resoundingly clear, judging from the fact that Digong has expressed it several times before and now. The killings, which were perpetrated before in Davao and are presently happening in the whole country, emanate from Duterte’s same public policy of killing as a strategy to control crime, and not from his mere penchant to kill. These killings have been done before in Davao City through the Death Squad, where policemen were primarily used in the killings as a policy of crime control.  It is just being replicated on a national scale by the mayor who happened to have become President.  Having boasted and suggested to then President Arroyo that it is the best practice, it is not hard to suppose that Digong is adopting the best practice because he is now the President who naturally would want Davao City to be the role model for the whole country. Sadly, the DOJ, NBI and other law enforcement agencies are all under the control of Digong and expectedly will  not dare to investigate him for the killings.  But surely, the Commission on Human Rights can and should stand up against Digong, by taking up the cudgels for human rights. After all, that is the mandate of the CHR which is independent of Digong. International human rights law punishes as a crime what is called “crimes against humanity” described as a most serious crime of concern to the international community as a whole.  The International Criminal Court is vested with the jurisdiction and power to try and convict a person for such crime. Murder, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack, constitutes a “crime against humanity,” under  the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Digong has been heard saying that anyway he is immune from suit.  But that is as far as Philippine law is concerned. In the International Criminal Court, he cannot invoke his presidential immunity from suit. He can be investigated, subjected to trial and convicted just like any other President. His immunity from suit will not save him from his mass murders. As President, Digong has heaped words of scorn and derision upon the United Nations, and its personnel including no less than Secreatry-General Ban Ki-Moon. Apparently unaware of the country’s treaty obligations, he has mocked the UN, with his foreign affairs secretary telling the UN General Assembly not to meddle into the internal affairs of the country. For sure, he will oppose in utter contempt, but in vain, any move to bring him to the bar of international criminal justice. He even told the European Union and the UN that he welcomed an investigation provided it is done under Philippine laws. But Digong can spare the whole country from an international embarrassment by allowing an investigation to be done instead by Philippine authorities under Philippine laws. To do away with presidential immunity, Digong can gracefully step down. After all, he promised that he would resign if he failed to stop the drug menace in six months. Now that he has admitted his failure, he should be a man of his word, as a Catholic bishop took him to task for his promise. One begins to wonder if he is clinging to power just to protect himself under his presidential immunity. It is not in keeping with his open disgust towards hypocrisy. (Jude Josue Sabio is a lawyer from Misamis Oriental.)