Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte appeared to liken himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on Friday and said he would "be happy" to exterminate three million drug users and peddlers in the country.
Although the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama played down the remark, Duterte's comments triggered shock and anger among Jewish groups in the United States, which could create pressure on the U.S. government to take a tougher line with the Philippines leader. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Friday said Duterte's comments, in a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam, were "a significant departure" from America's partnership with the Philippines "and we find them troubling."
Duterte told reporters that he had been "portrayed to be a cousin of Hitler" by critics. Noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews, Duterte said, "There are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them.
In Washington earlier on Friday, a State Department spokeswoman, Anna Richey-Allen, had repeated concerns about reports of extrajudicial killings in the southeast Asian country but offered no response to Duterte's comment referring to Hitler.
A White House official on Friday stuck to a strategy of stressing Washington's long-standing ties with Manila, saying, "We continue to focus on our broad relationship with the Philippines and will work together in the many areas of mutual interest."
How relations between the U.S. and the Philippines evolve will depend more on what Duterte does than on what he says, administration officials have said.
Duterte, who was elected in May on the back of a vow to end drugs and corruption in the country of 100 million people, has insulted Obama and in a number of remarks he has undermined the relationship between Manila and Washington.
