Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday extended his deadly drug war until the last day of his term in 2022, but conceded the police force acting as his frontline troops was "corrupt to the core".
Thousands of people have died in the crackdown that began when Duterte took office in the middle of last year, with rights groups warning police are carrying out extrajudicial killings not just to fight crime but to aid their own corrupt activities.
Duterte won the presidential elections largely on a law-and-order platform headlined by a vow to eliminate the illegal drug trade in three to six months.
Once in office Duterte extended the timeframe until March of this year, but on Monday he said there would be no end while he was in power.
"I will extend it to the last day of my term," Duterte told reporters.
"March no longer applies."
In the Philippines, presidents are allowed to serve only a single term of six years.
Duterte has been unrepentant in the face of fierce criticism of the drug war from various Western governments, UN agencies and rights groups, saying he must take extreme measures to stop the Philippines from becoming a narco state.
However a series of scandals involving the police using the drug war as a cover for extortion, including the abduction and murder of a South Korean businessmen, have fuelled fears that rogue cops are on the rampage.
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