Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte interacting with reporters during a news conference upon his arrival in Davao on Friday night, 21 OCtober Reuters

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Donald Trump shocked the world when he was elected in November but in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, there were some that welcomed it – if only because it momentarily distracted attention from the antics of their own leader, Rodrigo Duterte, a strongman very much in the US president-elect's mould.

Like Trump, Duterte was considered an outsider when he announced his attention to run for president of the Philippines in 2016. But a few months later the lawyer and former mayor of Davao City was duly elected on a promise to clean up the country's rampant drugs trade by killing tens of thousands of criminals.

As of December 2016, that number is believed to have reached just over 5,000. Many of these victims have been gunned down in the streets by vigilantes, others killed by rival gangs and – it is alleged – the police. Since June 2016, newspapers and TV stations around the world have headed to Manila to cover the bloodshed.

In this week's episode of In the Field, IBTimesUK speaks to two journalists that have reported on the drugs war. The first, Sean Williams, spent two weeks in Manila earlier this year and covered the drug killing for IBTimesUK and others. Our second guest, Dante Ang, is executive editor of the Manila Times, a daily newspaper.

In the Field is a weekly podcast looking at major news stories around the world, talking to the journalists, researchers, aid workers and experts working directly within them. Please subscribe on iTunes and tune in every week for more on the stories that matter.