As Mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte ran on an anti-crime and anti-corruption platform. But he governed in a unique way. He would personally go around the city and shoot suspected criminals. As a result Davao became a lovely southern city. But at what cost?
From Wickepedia: “Nicknamed “The Punisher” by Time, an alleged vigilante group called the Davao Death Squad has been tied to Duterte by human rights organizations and are responsible for the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers.[11][12] Duterte has drawn criticism from various sources, particularly the press and the Philippine National Police leadership in the Aquino government, which contest the effectiveness of his policies.[13]
On May 9, 2016, Duterte won the Philippine presidential election, garnering 16,601,997 votes (39.01% of total votes cast, and 6.6 million votes ahead of closest rival Mar Roxas).[14] “
Manila (AFP) – “Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is waging a bloody war on crime, has justified the large-scale killing of drug users by suggesting the victims were not human.
“Duterte, who has seen about two thousand people killed since he was elected in May, made the remarks late Friday as he shrugged off the United Nations’ concerns over human rights in his country.
“‘Crime against humanity? In the first place, I’d like to be frank with you: are they humans? What is your definition of a human being?” he told soldiers while visiting an army camp, according to transcripts of his speech released afterwards.
“‘Human rights? Use it properly in the right context if you have the brains,” he added.
“‘You cannot wage a war without killing,” Duterte said, adding that many drug users were beyond rehabilitation.”