The leader, who backs vigilante death squads in his war on drugs, appeared to answer critics who call him a dictator by likening himself to the Nazi leader.
ADVERTISEMENTPhilippines President Rodrigo Duterte has invoked Nazi Germany in his latest outburst. The leader, who backs vigilante death squads in his war on drugs, appeared to answer critics who call him a dictator by likening himself to Hitler.
“Hitler massacred three million Jews. There are three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them. At least, if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have (pointing to himself). You know, my victims, I would like them all to be criminals, to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”
His comments were roundly condemned by Jewish groups in the US. The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish group based in the United States, said Duterte’s comments were “shocking for their tone-deafness”.
“The comparison of drug users and dealers to Holocaust victims is inappropriate and deeply offensive,” said Todd Gutnick, the group’s director of communications. “It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster.”
Since Duterte’s election in May, thousands of drugs suspects have been killed causing a wave of international outrage at the extrajudicial killings. While he was elected on a platform to rid society of drugs by any means necessary, not everyone agrees with the firebrand leader’s methods.
“We are telling people that these things matter, these lives matter,” said protest leader Nica Domique Ondoy speaking during protest. “There are over two-thousand people killed in the process of extrajudicial killings so what’s happening here is not really a due process.”