Philippine president's Hitler remarks clarified

The Philippine government clarified Saturday President Rodrigo Duterte's statement on slaughtering drug addicts like what Adolf Hitler did to millions of Jews after drawing strong criticisms from the international community.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte's reference to the slaughter was an oblique deflection of the way he has been pictured as a mass murderer, a Hitler, is a label that he rejects.

"The Philippines recognizes the deep significance of the Jewish experience especially their tragic and painful history," he said in an interview over a state-run radio station.

"We do not wish to diminish the profound loss of 6 million Jews in the holocaust, that deep midnight of their story as a people," Abella added.

He said the President drew "an oblique conclusion that while the holocaust was an attempt to exterminate the future generation of Jews, the so-called extrajudicial killings, wrongly attributed to him, will nevertheless result in the salvation of the next generation of Filipinos."

Duterte has said that he would "be happy to slaughter" the estimated three million drug addicts in the country.

"Hitler massacred three million Jews. There are three million drug addicts. I'd be happy to slaughter them," he said upon arrival in southern city of Davao from his overnight trip to Vietnam early Friday morning.

Different groups condemned Duterte's rhetoric, saying it was offensive to holocaust victims. Endit