Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte came to power, saying that he would be “happy to slaughter” the millions of drug addicts who he said were destroying his country.
During his presidency from 2016 to 2022, Duterte styled himself as an anti-drug crosser, whose merciless ‘war on drugs’ killed thousands.
Duterte, called ‘The Punisher’, boasted about a violent past. Now he appears to the Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Duterte’s anti-drug campaign raised global alarm about the allegations of extraordinary murders, as police have launched a suppression of suspected drug users and dealers.
Duterte repeatedly denied the allegations, saying the drug problem is a national security issue. Duterte said he instructed the police to kill only in self -defense.
From prosecutor to Davao Death Squads
Duterte was born in Maasin City as politician and lawyer Vicente Duterte and the teacher Soledad Roa.
At the age of 15, he wore a gun. At 16, he claims to have stabbed someone to death, although he became known for his dubious boast.
Despite being kicked out of schools, Duterte studied the law. He was a total of 20 years as a prosecutor, vice mayor and then mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao.
The ICC investigated the allegations. Mass murders in suppression of Duterte in Davao and later as president. The estimate of the death toll of the oppression during the Duterte presidential term differed, from the more than 6,000 reported by national police to 30,000 by human rights groups.
In 2015, Human Rights Watch Duterte described as the ‘Death Squad Mayor’ about his alleged tactics in dealing with violent crime in Davao, with more than 1,000 people killed.
“License to kill”
“Am I the Death Squad? Where. That’s true, “Duterte told television that year, but he rejected the allegations. During his presidency, such remarks would make his assistants say that such remarks should not be taken literally and that it was a joke.
In 2016, Duterte won the presidency on an avid, but failed promise to eradicate illegal drugs and corruption within three to six months, in a long -tired country and corruption scandals.
“Everyone who uses drugs … I’ll really kill you,” Duterte told a large crowd in a campaign stop in Manila. “I have no patience, I have no middle ground. Either you kill me, or I will kill your idiots. “
He also compared himself to Adolf Hitler, saying that he would be “happy” three million drug addicts in an analogy between the Holocaust and his war on drugs.
He also boasted about the search for the criminals to kill while riding a motorcycle.
She boasts violence has expanded to attacks on women and the press. Perhaps he was particularly noticed that he made a joke about the campaign over the rape of an Australian missionary killed in a 1989 prison riot in Davao. He later apologized.
Anti-Drug Operations 2016 to 2022
Duterte won the Presidency race in 2016 with a wide margin.
Shortly after he was elected, Duerte security officers offered for the bodies of suspected drug dealers and protection to police over the oppression.
It is thought that between 12,000 and 30,000 civilians died during his presidency in connection with the drugs against drugs, according to the data cited by the ICC.
It is believed that the deaths were mainly men from low-income and urban regions shot by both police and unidentified attackers.
Duterte remained challenging. “Now show me the legal basis for my being here,” Duterte asked the police during his arrest, in remarks captured on the video by his daughter, Veronica Duttere, and posted on social media. “You must now answer for the deprivation of freedom.”
In a brief statement after the plane left, the ICC confirmed that one of its pre -hearing rooms issued an arrest order for Duterte on charges of “murder as a crime against humanity allegedly committed in the Philippines between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019.”
.jpeg?trim=0,309,48,0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800&w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "How Trump’s ‘America First’ MAGA movement turned the Republican Party into an ‘arm of the Kremlin’")
