The first biography of Rodrigo Duterte, the murderous, unpredictable president of the Philippines, a fascinating, fearsome man and the embodiment of populism in our time.
Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Philippines in 2016. In his first 18 months in office, 12,000 people were murdered on the streets, gunned down by police officers and vigilante citizens—all with his encouragement.
Duterte is a serial womaniser and a self-confessed killer, who has called both Barack Obama and Pope Francis ”sons of whores.” He is on record as saying he does not ”give a shit” about human rights. Yet he is beloved of the 16.6 million Filipinos who voted for him, seen as vulgar but honest, a breath of fresh air, and an iconoclastic, anti-imperialist rebel.
Through interviews with Duterte himself, his sister, daughter and son, two former presidents, old friends, death squad hitmen, and relatives of his victims, Channel 4 News’ Asia Correspondent Jonathan Miller shows that far from the media cartoon of The Godfather, John Wayne, Hugo Chavez, and Donald Trump rolled into one, Duterte is a sinister, dangerous man, who should not be taken lightly.
Jonathan Miller was Channel 4’s Asia Correspondent based in Bangkok. Three months after Rodrigo Duterte was elected in the President’s southern home city of Davao, Jonathan became the first foreign journalist to challenge him face-to-face on the devastation wrought by his controversial and deadly war on drugs.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Addicted to killing 1
1 Cardboard cut-out 13
2 Son of a … governor 31
3 Two smoking barrels 47
4 Los Niños 75
5 Duterte Harvey 103
6 Talking Duterte 133
7 Davao: Exhibit 'A' 155
8 Chronicle of deaths foretold 197
9 A jealous mistress 231
10 The drugs war, part (i): Lists 245
11 The drugs war, part (ii): Lies, damned lies 273
12 Slaves and tyrants: the authoritarian project 287
