Hundreds of people staged a protest in Manila on Friday to mark the first anniversary of Rodrigo Duterte becoming President of the Philippines.<br /><br />They headed to his presidential palace, denouncing policies including his notorious war on drugs that has seen thousands of extra-judicial killings. <br /><br />Critics held placards with slogans such as “Stop killing the poor” and displayed a ‘report card’ giving a damning verdict on his presidency.<br /><br />Protest leader Renato Reyes of the Patriotic Alliance group said:<br /><br />“The human rights record is a very serious concern. It is a bloody mark on the report card of the president and the killings have to stop, martial law has to stop, the militarisation of communities in the countryside has to stop.” <br /><br />A bloody drug war and an ISIS-linked city siege mark Duterte’s first year in office https://t.co/sDRHzWcFqc— TIME (@TIME) 30 juin 2017<br /><br />Duterte was a provincial city mayor whose brash man-of-the-people style, pledges to crush crime and firebrand rhetoric struck a chord with the Filipino people. His popularity saw him beat establishment rivals in last year’s election and swear the oath of office.<br /><br />Since then he has joked about rape, compared his war on drugs to the Holocaust and told Barack Obama to ‘go to hell’.<br /><br />Now facing his biggest crisis, as government troops battle Islamist rebels, Duterte scored an “excellent” personal trust rating in an opinion poll in May.<br /><br />with Reuters<br />
