As Duterte takes over in Philippines, police killings stir fear


Members of the Philippine National Police Special Reaction Unit gather as part of a police visibility operation along a main road in Metro Manila, Philippines, June 4, 2016. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo

MANILA (Reuters) - Two things catch the eye in the office of Joselito Esquivel, a police colonel enforcing a national crackdown on drugs in the Philippines' most crime-ridden district: a pair of boxing gloves in a display cabinet and an M4 assault rifle lying beside him.

"It's all-out war," the Quezon City officer says of a spike in killings of suspected drug dealers by police across the country since last month's election of Rodrigo Duterte, a tough-talking city mayor, as the country's president. "Duterte has already given the impetus for this massive operation."

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