Thousands dead: the Philippine president, the death squad allegations and a brutal drugs war

Now in a safe house, a former police officer fears for his life after allegedly exposing Rodrigo Duterte’s role in extrajudicial killings when mayor of Davao
The Observer (UK)
Sunday, April 2, 2017

“Throw them in the ocean or the quarry. Make it clean. Make sure there are no traces of the bodies.” The words are shocking. That they allegedly came from the man who is now president of the Philippines makes them explosive. It is claimed that Rodrigo Duterte gave the orders to his first death squad in Davao, in the southern island of Mindanao, in 1989 when he was ‘“mayor Rudy”. Arturo Lascanas, a retired police officer, made the accusations of Duterte’s campaign of extrajudicial killings under oath to the country’s senate last month.