Philippines President Duterte Says He Threw Someone From A Helicopter
But he backtracked on that claim during an interview a few days later.
LEARN MOREPosted: 7:37 p.m. EST Jan 30, 2017
The president of the Philippines paused the country's notorious drug war to declare war on what he calls "scalawags" — or corrupt police officers.
During a press conference, President Rodrigo Duterte called for a "list of who the scalawags are" to cleanse the police ranks of corruption.
This new war seems to stem from the murder of a South Korean businessman at the hands of anti-drug police. Duterte apologized for the killing earlier this week.
More than 7,000 people have been killed in the Philippines since Duterte began his war on drugs after taking office.
On Monday, the Philippine National Police chief said the police would be switching tracks to tackle corruption, but he mentioned they might return to the drug war later on.
Duterte originally promised he'd solve the drug problem by December 2016, but he later extended that deadline to March 2017. Now, he says he's extending it to the last day of his term in 2022.
