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The FRONTLINE Dispatch

Blood and Power in the Philippines

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.51.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2019

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte makes his own rules. His war on drugs has led to the deaths of thousands of alleged drug users and dealers. His violent rhetoric and rape jokes have shocked people around the world. Yet he’s hugely popular. Reporter Aurora Almendral delves into what made him the leader he is today. Her investigation starts in his hometown in the Philippines.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

My campaign against drug will not stop.

0:07.0

until the last pusher and the last drug lord are a cure. The killing started as soon as Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines in 2016.

0:31.0

I was there reporting in the streets of the capital, Manila.

0:35.0

So this is the third body we've seen tonight.

0:40.0

I hear there's one more.

0:46.0

This is really bad. He was shot in the back of the head and his brains are spilling out.

0:50.0

And his wife is crying a lot obviously.

0:57.0

It was exactly what Duterte promised the Filipino people.

1:07.0

Since he took office, thousands of alleged drug users and dealers have been killed by police.

1:13.2

His extreme rhetoric and volatile policies

1:16.1

have shocked people around the world.

1:18.4

But their outrage hasn't deterred him.

1:21.0

I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony.

1:30.0

I do not have any muster except the Filipino people.

1:34.1

Nobody but nobody.

1:36.4

But if he shows support like President Donald Trump has,

1:39.4

Duterte reveals his warm and playful side. Here he is singing a love song for Trump at a

1:45.6

gala in Manila in 2017. I've covered all this as a reporter and tried to interview Duterte many times.

2:06.0

I've chased him to different cities to try to get him to talk to me.

2:10.0

He's never agreed.

2:11.0

But still, I wanted to find out more about him and how he became the

2:14.7

leader he is today.

...

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