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The Rise and Rise of Rodrigo Duterte

In Full Control

Why the Media Love ?Digong?

Teenagers Perish in Davao?s Killing Fields

DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) ? Mayor Rodrigo Duterte likes to regale his guests with the story of how, one time, using a piece of firewood, he crushed the hands of a man accused of stealing hand-held radios. The problem with the story, as the mayor himself would tell his visitors, is that he had actually punished the wrong man.

Duterte laughed out loud when he narrated this story one evening last week, during dinner with friends and journalists. He used the story to drive home the point that he hates thieves and criminals with passion.

The irony was apparently lost on him. To his critics, however, this story illustrates perfectly what is so wrong with Duterte?s obsession with ridding the city of criminals using what has been described by the mayor?s critics as criminal methods. Because he sidesteps due process, they say, he is bound to make mistakes sooner or later.

Indeed, according to the Coalition Against Summary Executions (CASE), an alliance of human rights and child advocates in the city, 12 of the 469 murdered by death squads or hired killers here from 1998 until 2005 had been cases of mistaken identity.

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2005: A Year of Mayhem and Trepidation

2005 proved to be as tumultuous a year as the years past. It began with grisly violence as the vigilante-style killings in Davao City continued to claim victims even as Davaoe?os welcomed the new year with optimism. Indeed, violence, mayhem and murder dominated the news in Davao for much of the year.

There was also a strong sense that, despite the assurances from the authorities that terrorism was being checked, the city was becoming increasingly insecure. There were the usual debates, both the relevant (whether Mindanao should become a separate republic) to the almost comical (whether a sordid replica of the statue of David be allowed to greet strollers at a waterfront).

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