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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Kate Lamb

Who is Rodrigo Duterte? Populist architect of Philippines’ bloody ‘war on drugs’

Rodrigo Duterte holds a rifle
Rodrigo Duterte holds a rifle at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Quezon city north-east of Manila, April 2018. Photograph: Bullit Marquez/AP

As Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte was notorious for his boasting.

With cowboyish bravado, he bragged about a past when he cruised around on his motorbike looking for suspected criminals to kill, or at age 16 stabbed someone to death. In 2016 he joked about missing out on the chance to rape an Australian missionary before she was murdered in jail in 1989.

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