Philippine President Duterte's deadly drug war turned into a war on loitering, including homeless and children

REUTERS/Erik De Castro

• Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, famous for his bloody war on drugs and his obsession with social order, has launched a war on loitering.
• Duterte launched it out of the blue on June 13 during one of his trademark rambling speeches, when he said people hanging out in the streets should be ordered home, and if they refused, he would personally tie their hands and drop them into a river.
• Manila police took that as a directive, implementing it with gusto and some 59,000 people have since been apprehended.

MANILA (Reuters) - Each night, police in teams of about a dozen fan out across the most rundown areas of the Philippine capital, rounding up slum-dwellers who linger in the streets, or teenagers who play in makeshift computer gaming shops.

Children scavenging on mountains of trash are ordered home, their parents warned of jail if minors are seen out late again. Men found shirtless, and those smoking or drinking alcohol outdoors are taken to district offices, cautioned, and their names and addresses recorded.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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