By Jim Gomez, Associated Press MANILA, Philippines – Nine years ago, Father Amado Picardal helped bury a teenager from a slum family who was gunned down by motorcycle-riding assassins in the southern Philippine city of Davao. The death was among hundreds in the large port city blamed on an anti-crime purge some believed was secretly run by its mayor, Rodrigo Duterte. Fr. Amado Picardel. Photo courtesy of Twitter. Memories of that violence flashed back in the Roman Catholic priest’s mind when the tough-talking mayor triumphed in last week’s presidential election on a pledge to replicate his Davao crime-busting style in the rest of the Philippines. “I felt sad and depressed,” Picardal said of Duterte’s rise. A Duterte presidency is “very frightening,” he said in an interview, adding that human rights groups will need to keep a close watch and document any violations, especially extrajudicial killings, in the next six [...]
