Since Rodrigo Duterte took office as the president of the Philippines at the end of June, 1,900 people have been killed, mostly by police, in the crackdown on drug dealing he ran on. The BBC reports:
The head of the Philippines police has said more than 1,900 people have been killed during a crackdown on illegal drugs in the past seven weeks.
Ronald dela Rosa was speaking at a senate hearing into the sharp rise in deaths since Rodrigo Duterte became president.
He said police operations had killed about 750 people, but the other deaths were still being investigated.
Mr Duterte won the presidency with his hard-line policy to eradicate drugs.
He has previously urged citizens to shoot and kill drug dealers who resisted arrest, and reiterated that the killings of drug suspects were lawful if the police acted in self-defence.
He also threatened to “separate” from the UN after it called his war on drugs a crime under international law.
Dubbed “The Punisher” by Time (after the Marvel Comics vigilante), President Duterte clearly won office as a consequence of rather than despite his hardline stance.
I’m not particularly well-informed about Filipino current events or politics. Why does this issue resonate with the people there?
I’m an international news junkie, but I missed this. Most of what I’ve read recently about the PI is about Abu Sayyaf and their recent beheading of hostages.