Mindanao

Along came Rodrigo Duterte, a swaggering ruffian from the southern island of Mindanao, whose 1998 psychological assessment concluded he had a “pervasive tendency to demean, humiliate others and violate their rights.”

He cultivated an image of a tough-talking and anti-establishment man of the masses, endearing him to Filipinos who elected him as the country's first president from the southern island of Mindanao.

Elliot Eastman, an American living in the Philippines who was shot and abducted from the island of Mindanao in October, was most likely killed by his kidnappers, the Philippine National Police said on Thursday.

Heavy monsoon rains have pounded parts of Mindanao on and off for weeks, causing landslides and flooding that have forced tens of thousands of people into emergency shelters.

The southern Philippine region of Mindanao is the homeland of minority Muslims and has been the scene of decades-old separatist rebellions.