President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted that he really worked for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo even to the point of "killing" people because he felt that it was what "she wanted."

Duterte made the statement in jest during his speech at the appreciation dinner for the former president and later former speaker of the House of Representatives on Tuesday night at the Manila Hotel.

"Perhaps no other chief executive in our history comes close to President Arroyo’s example of carrying out decisive actions even if such actions would prove to be unpopular. Indeed, her intuitive and hands-on leadership has carried our nation forward, especially during trying times," he said.

Duterte, then mayor of Davao City, was one of the government officials being consulted by Arroyo during her nine-year presidency.

"If I may just mention it in passing without being specific, the number of times that you called me in the wee hours of the morning just to listen to me and to seek my advice," Duterte recalled.

He said even when he was mayor and for the years that Arroyo was the president, "I was really working for her."

"Of course, I did not kill anyone because she ordered it. I just killed because it was my feeling that she wanted me to," Duterte jokingly said.

Duterte has been criticized for the alleged extrajudicial killings when he was still the mayor of Davao City.

Now that he is the president, Duterte is again being criticized and complaints were even brought before the International Criminal Tribunal due to the alleged extrajudicial killings as a result of his war on drugs.

Based on the government's data, over 6,000 individuals have already been killed in the government's anti-illegal drug campaign, which was launched in July 2016.

But some quarters said the killings reached about 27,000.

The Palace has said the Duterte administration respects human rights. Celerina Monte/DMS