Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines two months ago, the country has waged a vicious war against the drug trade. The number of victims will soon reach 2,000, a horrific number. The mounting death toll should come as no surprise. Duterte campaigned on a law and order platform, his reputation was built on this image and there was no reason to think that he would moderate his behavior if he moved to Malacanang Palace. The drug problem may well constitute a national crisis, but that cannot excuse the shredding of the rule of law and extrajudicial killings. Human rights extend to the guilty and the innocent alike.

Duterte made his reputation as mayor of Davao City as a man of action. He waged a war on criminals on all fronts: Police and vigilantes — sometimes called death squads — were encouraged to take the law into their own hands. Extrajudicial killings were widespread, but crime rates in Davao City plummeted during his tenure, which lasted seven terms from 1988 to June this year.

The key pledge of Duterte's presidential campaign was to replicate this success on the national scale. He sought the return of capital punishment (abolished in 2006) for "heinous" crimes, such as the drug trade. He warned that this strategy to deal with drugs and corruption would be simple: "kill them all," promising that the fish of Manila Bay would grow fat feasting on the bodies of drug dealers. After he was elected, he warned all police and related personnel to leave the drug trade or quit their jobs; he has also publicly named mayors, government and police officials he alleged were involved in drug trafficking.