Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked for a six-month extension for his war on drugs, saying there are too many people involved in the narcotics trade and he “cannot kill them all”. Rodrigo Duterte attracts lurid headlines, but to Filipinos he’s a breath of fresh air | Joanna Fuertes-Knight Read more“I did not realise how severe and how serious the drug menace was in this republic until I became president,” Duterte, 71, told reporters late Sunday in his southern home city of Davao. Police say they have killed 1,105 drug suspects in the slightly more than two months since Duterte took office. The crackdown has drawn severe criticism from the United States, the European Union parliament and the United Nations over what they say are extrajudicial killings. Days after his election win, Duterte also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers, and has repeatedly pledged to protect police from prosecution over the killings.

Source: The Guardian September 19, 2016 05:37 UTC