President Rodrigo Duterte said most drug dealers and addicts put up a fight with the police. (File Photo)
The Philippine President has acknowledged abuses in a battle against illegal drugs, which has left more than 400 suspects dead and alarmed rights activists, but is not backing down from a shoot-to-kill order for drug suspects.
President Rodrigo Duterte said in a speech late on Thursday that most drug dealers and addicts killed in gunbattles with police had put up a fight, but added that he was sure some were "salvaged," a local term for extrajudicial killings usually by law enforcers.
In the case of illegal killings, Duterte said the government will investigate.
Early today, he said he gave "shoot-to-kill" orders against drug dealers including politicians involved in the illicit trade.
A legal expert, Jose Manuel Diokno, says such an order is, at the least, legally questionable.