Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte earned global infamy for the deadly drug crackdown that led to his arrest over crimes against humanity charges, despite his huge popularity at home.
A profane-lipped populist and self-professed killer, Duterte’s anti-crime campaign resulted in the deaths of thousands of alleged dealers and addicts.
Rights groups said many of those killed were poor men, often without any proof they were linked to drugs.
Photo: AFP
Yet, while drawing condemnation abroad, tens of millions of Filipinos backed his swift brand of justice — even as he joked about rape in his rambling speeches, locked up his critics and failed to root out entrenched corruption.
That trust was dented by the COVID-19 pandemic, which plunged the country into its worst economic crisis in decades, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions jobless with a slow-paced vaccine rollout.
Duterte’s woes deepened in 2021, when the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) sought an investigation into crimes against humanity during his crackdown between 2013 and 2018.
He served out his six-year term, leaving office in 2022.
On March 11 last year, Duterte was arrested and flown to the Netherlands, seat of the ICC, where he has been in detention since.
Duterte has repeatedly said there was no official campaign to kill addicts and dealers, but his speeches included calls for violence, and he did tell police to use lethal force if their lives were in danger.
“If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself, as getting their parents to do it would be too painful,” Duterte said hours after being sworn in as president in June 2016.
Months later, he would liken the deadly crackdown to the Nazis’ mass murder of Jews, while vastly underestimating the number of people killed in the Holocaust.
“Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there are 3 million drug addicts [in the Philippines]. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”
His unfiltered comments are part of his self-styled image as a “maverick,” which found traction in a nation where corruption, red tape and institutional dysfunction impact people’s lives at every level.
Duterte was elected to his old job as mayor of his southern stronghold of Davao in midterm elections held in May last year, although jail stopped him serving.
During his long tenure as Davao mayor, Duterte was accused of links to vigilante death squads that rights groups said killed more than 1,000 people — accusations he has accepted and denied, and which form part of the ICC charges.
Duterte now faces his second court date on Monday, when judges would decide whether the prosecution’s allegations are strong enough to proceed to trial.
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