DHAKA: At least 45 people with suspected links to drug trafficking have been killed in four days since Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as president of the Philippines.

A Philippines’ TV channel, reported on Monday that at least 29 drug and robbery suspects were killed in Bulacan province, near the capital Manila, since June 30, when Duterte took over the presidency.

Duterte won the election in May on a platform of crushing crime. But his rhetoric has alarmed many who hear echoes of the country’s authoritarian past.

After his oathtaking on Thursday, Duterte said he wanted to get rid of drug traffickers, telling supporters to “go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful”.

In Manila, Oscar Albayalde, regional police chief, said five drug dealers were killed on Sunday in a gun battle with police in a shantytown near the Malacanang presidential residence.

Four guns and 200g of crystal methamphetamine were recovered, police added.

Two other men were shot dead in separate sting operations in the Pasig district.

Two bodies were also found under a well-known Manila bridge on Saturday morning.

Elsewhere, at least six alleged drug dealers and a policeman linked to drugs syndicates were killed in six other provinces across the country.

Media reports said more than 100 people had already died, mostly suspected drug dealers, rapists and car thieves since Duterte’s election on May 9.

Azadeh Shahshahani, a human rights lawyer who has monitored rights abuses in the Philippines, told Al Jazeera that the killings set a “worrisome trend” in light of the comments issued by Duterte.

BDST: 1059 HRS, JULY 5, 2016
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