Duterte: Like Hitler, I’d slaughter 3m drug addicts
RODRIGO DUTERTE, the president of the Philippines, sparked outrage yesterday by comparing himself to Hitler and saying he would be “happy” to slaughter millions of drug addicts.
Speaking at a press conference at his home city of Davo, he said he had been likened to a “cousin of Hitler” by his critics. “If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...,” he said, pausing for a few moments before pointing to himself.
He added: “Hitler massacred three million Jews ... there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”
More than six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators before and during the Second World War, according to historians.
Mr Duterte is waging a bloody war on drug abuse in the Philippines and has previously encouraged his citizens to carry out vigilante killings on both dealers and addicts. An estimated 3,000 people have already been killed since Mr Duterte won the presidential elections by a landslide last May.
Josef Benedict, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said: “With this latest outburst, President Duterte has sunk to new depths. Governments – both in the region and around the world – should speak out immediately and condemn these outrageous statements.”