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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Philippine police officers investigate the body of an alleged drug dealer, his face covered with packing tape and a placard reading "I'm a pusher", on a street in Manila on July 8, 2016.</td></tr>
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 MANILA — Controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who campaigned on a vow to kill 100,000 criminals, is making good on his promise less than two weeks into his term. 
 In that short span, he has left a bloody trail of drug world executions that is drawing alarm from human rights groups and opposition politicians. 
 Duterte was sworn in on June 30, and within the first week of his presidency 72 accused drug dealers were killed by police and vigilante groups, according to a "Kill List" compiled by the newspaper Philippine Inquirer. Dating back to Duterte's election victory on May 10, the figure jumps to 119. 
 Last weekend, police reported nine more killings, including an unidentified man found in Manila with his head wrapped in tape and a cardboard sign on his torso reading: "I Am a Pusher." 
 Human rights lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, national chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group, called the spate of killings "a nuclear explosion of violence." 
 “Do we really want to give the man with the gun the power to judge who are criminals and to kill them? To decide who is bad and who is good, who deserves to live and who deserves to die?" he wrote in a blog for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. 
 The killings also have drawn condemnation from international rights groups. 
 "Human Rights Watch is concerned that President Duterte's electoral platform, which included repeated promises to kill those deemed to be criminals and drug dealers, may be interpreted by some as a legitimization of the unlawful concept of extrajudicial killings as an acceptable approach to crime control," said Phelim Kine, the group's Asia deputy director. 
 "Not only does each case need to be investigated, but it’s crucial there be an inquiry into the surge in killings since June 30 and action taken to put an end to it." 
 Duterte, whose incendiary rhetoric has earned him comparisons to Donald Trump, campaigned on a platform of law and order and ending corruption. The seven-term mayor of Davao, a city on the restive southern island of Mindanao, was wildly popular for solving the city’s drug and crime problems. But his tactics, which earned him nicknames such as “The Punisher” and “Duterte Harry,” included more than 1,000 extrajudicial killings using death squads, according to rights groups. 
 After winning the presidency in a landslide victory in May, Duterte doubled down on his tough talk. Last month, he encouraged vigilante justice against criminals and drug dealers in a televised address.. 
 “Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun, you have my support,” he said.  “You can kill him. Shoot him and I'll give you a medal.” 
 Just days after taking office, Duterte publicly named five high-ranking police officials allegedly tied to the drug trade and ordered them removed from their posts. He also named three major drug traffickers, all Chinese nationals, in a televised speech and warned that they would be executed if they remained involved in the drug trade. Two are currently in prison but believed to be operating their drug empires from behind bars. A third was out of the country, and Duterte warned him not to return. 
 "The moment he steps off the plane, he will die," Duterte said. 
 An opposition political leader, Sen. Leila de Lima, called last week for a legislative investigation into the spate of killings. 
 However, Duterte also has his supporters in government for his brutal approach to fighting drugs and crime in a country that has been deeply plagued by both. He already has begun lobbying allies in Congress to reinstate the death penalty, a position publicly supported by lawmakers that include boxing legend and new Sen. Manny Pacquiao. 
 A large segment of the population also appears willing to give Duterte’s violent tactics a chance, according to political analyst Richard Javad Heydarian, author of Asia's New Battlefield: US, China and the Struggle for the Western Pacific. 
 "Though liberal circles and human rights groups have expressed strong criticism in recent days, it seems much of the public is adopting a passive or wait and see approach, since there is a deep sense that previous administrations dedicated limited political capital to ensuring law and order," Heydarian said. 
 High-ranking officials in the Duterte administration remain unbowed by the criticism of how they are waging the drug war. Solicitor General Jose Calida, the top legal official in the country, assured police Monday that he would protect them against any charges of extrajudicial killings. 
 “We will not allow anybody to derail this effort of the PNP (Philippine National Police) and its officers to implement the order of our President, to stop this drug trafficking and drug menace in our society,” Calida said. “I am here to encourage the PNP not to be afraid of any congressional or Senate investigations. We will defend them.” 
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Duterte World News USA Today: Philippine President 'Duterte Harry' acts on pledge to kill drug dealers! MUST READ!

Philip pine police officers investigate the body of an alleged drug dealer, his face covered with packing tape and a placard reading ...