Philippine leader admits abuses in war on drugs

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged abuses have occurred in his war on illegal drugs, which has left more than 400 people dead in a month and alarmed rights activists.

Duterte said in a speech late Thursday that most drug dealers and addicts slain in gunbattles with police had put up a fight, but added that he was sure some were “salvaged,” a local slang for extrajudicial killings usually by law officers.

Look at what you’re doing to the Philippines and I’ll forgive you? Duterte said, apparently enraged after visiting a town police chief who was shot in the chest by a suspected drug dealer and rushed to a Davao hospital.

Duterte’s centerpiece anticrime drive, focused on an ambitious campaign promise to end the widespread drug problem in six months, has left more than 400 drug suspects dead, many of them either in gunfights with police or under suspect circumstances.