Philippines Presidential Frontrunner Says He'd Kill His Drug-Using Child
Admits he probably agrees with people who call him a killer.
Voters in the Philippines are choosing a new president in a couple of weeks and Rodrigo Duterte, mayor of Davao, has opened up a 12 point lead over Sen. Grace Poe.
Duterte has made international headlines a number of times over some of the outlandish things he's said—most recently that he felt he should have been allowed to rape a woman who was gangraped during a prison riot first, since he was the mayor of the town where it happened and she was good-looking.
Despite his reputation for speaking before he thinks, Duterte has bristled at comparisons to Donald Trump. "Donald Trump is a bigot, I am not," Duterte explained.
The Philippines' presidential frontrunner is at it again, insisting he would murder his own children if they did drugs. The issue came up in the last debate before the election, with Duterte vowing to be a harsh president. "They say I am a killer," Duterte, who as mayor of Davao has seen a dramatic rise in vigilante death squads in his city. "Maybe I am."
When he was asked what he would do if he caught one of his children doing drugs, he told the moderator he'd kill them. The Philippines is one of several Southeast Asian countries where certain drug crimes carry the death penalty. In the island nation, possession of as little as .3 ounces of heroin, cocaine, and other narcotics, or 17 ounces of marijuana, is punishable by death.
Similar suggestions have been made for the United States. Most recently, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), proposed beheadings for drug traffickers caught in his state.