Bangkok: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a "cleansing" of rogue police and the disbandment of his country's anti-drugs unit after the abduction and killing of a South Korean businessman under the cover of his deadly drugs crackdown.
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Mr Duterte admitted he is embarrassed by the strangulation of Jee Ick-joo in a botched kidnap-for-ransom operation inside the grounds of the national police headquarters, Camp Crame, which shocked foreigners living in the country and is now the subject of a parliamentary hearing.
"They could have killed, strangled him anywhere but to say it had to happen inside Camp Crame is really bad, we admit that. Something has to be corrected severely," he said.
But Mr Duterte also declared he would continue to push ahead with the crackdown that has left more than 7000 people dead since July, saying it would be extended until the end of his six-year term in office.
He said he plans to create a "narco police" command under the existing Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency that will target police involved in the drugs trade.
"I'll just gather them, bring them new uniforms, new combat boots," he said.
Philippine police chief Ronald Dela Rosa said the break-up of the anti-drugs unit could disrupt the crackdown but was necessary.
He is a close associate of a police officer who commanded the unit allegedly involved in Mr Jee's murder but Mr Duterte refused to accept his offer to resign over the scandal.
Until now Mr Duterte, 72, a former provincial mayor, has strongly defended police against accusations of their involvement in widespread extra-judicial executions, promising to protect them from prosecution for killings during the crackdown, including providing pardons if they were accused of crimes while performing their duties.
He also said he would tolerate them earning "sideline" money, a euphemism for corrupt activities, as long as it did not involve drugs.
The Philippine National Police is known as one of the country's most corrupt institutions.
But under growing pressure from lawmakers, including some from inside his own ruling coalition, Mr Duterte has turned on the police who kidnapped Mr Jee from his home in Angeles City, 80 kilometres north of Manila, in October last year, and has apologised to South Korea for the crime.
"My enemies here are the police," he said, adding that he suspected 40 per cent of police "are used to corruption".
The President said four policemen behind Mr Jee's murder were known to investigators and would go to prison.
One went missing from police custody at the weekend.
"I will see to it that they are sentenced to the maximum," Mr Duterte said.
The kidnappers extorted a more than US$100,000 ($132,000) ransom from Mr Jee's family, who were unaware he had already been killed when they sent the money in two instalments.
Mr Duterte said police across the country who had been the subject of internal investigations should be assigned to conflict zones in the country's troubled southern provinces where the army is fighting Muslim extremists.
He said he had under-estimated his country's drug problem when he initially promised to wipe out the trade within six months of taking office on June 30.
Referring to his order to extend the crackdown, he said: "I don't give a shit. I have a duty to do and I will do it."
The crackdown under which children as young as five have been killed has been widely condemned outside of the Philippines, including by the United Nations and the United States.
But Mr Duterte's popularity remains high in the Philippines where drugs have ravaged impoverished communities.
Mr Durtere is pushing for the reintroduction of the death penalty for drug and other major crimes through legislation that is scheduled to be debated in parliament this week.
The move is opposed by the Catholic Church in the majority Catholic country of 100 million people.
