He has drawn international attention for his bloody approach to the fight against drugs in the Philippines and for having insulted just about everyone. Who is Rodrigo Duterte.
Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines since May 2016, made headlines around the world for insulting United States president Barack Obama during a press conference at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Laos. The comment, which led to the cancellation of the bilateral meeting between the two presidents, drew international attention to Duterte's controversial personality and his hard-line political stance.
Duterte has been at the forefront of the country's political arena since 1988, when he was elected mayor of Davao, a heavily populated city on the island of Mindanao in the south of the Philippines. He held the role for seven terms (22 years) and also served as deputy mayor and member of the city congress.
Duterte's policies at the time focused primarily on combating crime, corruption and activism. And his approach to dealing with problems was anything but democratic. It was during those years that the current president began supporting the extrajudicial killings of drug users and traffickers.
As he had promised during his election campaign, the death toll from the war on drugs rose sharply after he became president. According to the latest figures, since the start of his bloody campaign at least 2,400 people have been killed without due process: approximately 1,011 suspected drug users and traffickers were killed by police, while 1,391 were killed by vigilantes backed by the president himself, according to figures reported by the national police.
"More people will be killed, until the last dealer has been taken off the streets. Until the last trafficker is killed, we will continue and I will continue," Duterte stated. His tough approach has earned him nicknames such as "the punisher" and "Duterte Harry". United Nations human rights experts condemned him, describing his encouragement of violence and killings as a "crime under international law". The president responded by calling them stupid and threatening to leave the UN, before saying that his tirade had only been a joke.
Although he is a staunch advocate of tough measures, Duterte also used public funds to build a care and rehabilitation centre that offers round-the-clock support to drug addicts who present themselves voluntarily. He is also known for having given formal representation to indigenous minorities and Muslim communities, and for establishing the Magna Carta for Women in Davao, to promote the rights of Filipino women and combat discrimination.
At the same time, however, he has been an outspoken advocate of the reintroduction of the death penalty in the Philippines, the first Asian country to abolish it in 1987.
Translated by Camilla Soldati