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Duterte Vows to Kill 3 Million President of Philippines compares himself to Adolf Hitler


Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said killing drug users would "save the next generation from perdition." (BULLIT MARQUEZ/AP)

The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, made perhaps his most controversial remark on record Friday -- openly musing about killing 3 million drug users, and likening himself to Adolf Hitler.

"If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...," Duterte said in a press conference, then pausing and pointing to himself.

"Hitler massacred 3 million Jews ... there's 3 million drug addicts. There are. I'd be happy to slaughter them," Duterte said, speaking in Davao City, where he was previously mayor and gained a reputation for being tough-on-crime, but also allegedly employing extrajudicial death squads. Explosive testimony rocked the country earlier this month, when a self-confessed former death squad member said he witnessed Duterte personally execute a government official with a machine gun in the early 1990's.

Duterte argued Friday that killing that number of alleged drug users would "save the next generation from perdition."

Germany swiftly condemned Duterte's remarks.

"It is impossible to make any comparison to the unique atrocities of the… Holocaust," said, Martin Schaefer, a German foreign ministry spokesman.

[READ: Rodrigo Duterte Invites ‘Devil’ U.N. to Investigate Death Squad Allegations in Philippines]

"Does he want to be sent to the international criminal court? Because he's working his way there," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

Since becoming president in late June, Duterte has led a large-scale national drug war, and sparred with traditional allies of his country such as the United States, calling President Obama a "son of a whore." More than 3,000 are estimated to have died in the drug crackdown as of Friday, the majority at the hands of death squads.

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