And in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte said today he’d be happy to slaughter drug addicts just like Adolf Hitler massacred millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Duterte made the remarks during a rambling speech after returning from a trip to Vietnam.
President Rodrigo Duterte: “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now, there is 3 million—what is it? Three million drug addicts, there are. I’d be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have [me]. You know, my victims, I would like to be all criminals, to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”
A wave of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines has claimed thousands of lives since Rodrigo Duterte became president in June. Duterte vowed during his campaign to crack down on drug users just like he did as the longtime mayor of the city of Davao, where his strongman tactics prompted Human Rights Watch to call him the “death squad mayor.”