Critics call him ‘serial killer.’ But Duterte is still a hit in the Philippines.

A year in and the Philippine drug war has reached a grim superlative. All evidence suggests that the sweeping police crackdown against meth users and dealers has brought about more than 8,000 deaths.

That puts the death toll on par with Bosnia’s 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the worst mass murder in Europe since the Holocaust. And yet, in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte remains wildly popular — thanks in large part to the popularity of the purge.

These police operations have produced ghastly scenes: corpses dumped on sidewalks, draped in signs reading “PUSHER,” their heads wrapped in electrical tape.

The rhetoric around these crackdowns evokes action films. The latest sweep is titled “Operation Double Barrel Reloaded.” Duterte has vowed to kill drug users and "dump" them all "into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there."

While much of the world is recoiling from the massacre he set into motion, broad swaths of the voting public are still cheering him along. Polls indicate that nearly 8 in 10 Filipinos are satisfied with the drug war.

None are cheering louder than the Duterte Youth. They’re an online-based booster club for the president with more than 10,000 members.

Joining the Duterte Youth involves no ceremony or secret handshakes — just a vow to support the 72-year-old president and his mission to restore order through force.

The organization is the brainchild of Ronald Cardema, a 32-year-old political consultant in Manila. “In a country like this,” he says, “a country so full of corruption, a country in chaos, I think you need a strongman leader.”

Here, Cardema explains why Duterte is so widely supported in the Philippines.

On Duterte’s strongman bona fides:

Duterte’s most resonant message, according to Cardema, is his vow to bring order to chaos.

“All of us know that it’s dangerous to go outside at night,” he says. “You go outside, you’re scared. Your parents will tell you every day, ‘Son, take care when you go out because drug addicts might kill you for your cellphone or money.’”

For years, Manila’s tabloids have been filled with salacious headlines about meth addicts turning into homicidal rapists. Now the papers are packed with stories of men and women, implicated in drug use or sales, hunted by cops or mysterious police-linked killers.

No one should be murdered without cause, Cardema says, but Duterte’s fans aren't really fretting over the violence.

“We have over 100 million population,” Cardema says. “In the war against drugs, there will be more casualties. Because in any war, there’s always casualties. So 8,000 is, I think, very small.”

‘Eight thousand [killed] is very small’

But is the purge proving effective? That depends on how you measure success.

The most recent polls, by a reputable Philippine agency called Social Weather Stations, shows nearly 90 percent of Filipinos agree there has been a “decrease in the drug problem in my area.”

Yet the price of “shabu” — Filipino slang for crystal meth — has actually ebbed a bit instead of rising. This may be an indicator that the drug’s supply lines have yet to be disrupted.

On comparisons with Hitler Youth:

Though Duterte Youth is largely an online organization for now, it has repeatedly marshaled dozens of supporters to rally in Manila. Some of the group’s members are fond of fatigues and, at more than one gathering, they have worn red armbands.

“People have tried to relate us to the Hitler Youth,” Cardema says. “That’s from another generation, another continent … and we’re not trying to emulate that. We only want to support our leader.”

As for those armbands? That’s a tribute to a rogue faction of Philippine army officers, the Magdalo Group, who wore red bandanas during attempts to oust a president in the early 2000s.

So who do the Duterte Youth hope to emulate?

Singapore. Taiwan. South Korea. Other modernized Asian countries and territories with — as Cardema sees it — disciplined and patriotic populations inclined toward “building a strong nation.”

“When I recruit young people,” he says, “I always tell them, ‘Look, you were born in a third-world country. Do you want to die in a third-world country?’”

His solution, backed by Duterte, is mandatory military-style training for all Filipino youth through the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

“All youth should know how to fire a gun. To know what to do during an attack or an earthquake,” he says. “We’re tired of our huge population of lazy people where nobody knows what to do when typhoons come or terrorists attack our cities.”

On those who condemn Duterte:

Duterte’s drug war has attracted intense scorn from both within and beyond the Philippines.

His fiercest domestic critic, a senator named Leila de Lima, has called him a “sociopathic serial killer.” She was subsequently imprisoned under questionable drug-trafficking charges.

From safer perches at the United Nations, top human rights officials have urged authorities to investigate Duterte for murder. Former President Barack Obama’s criticism of the drug war provoked Duterte to call him a “son of a bitch.”

Related: How to rehabilitate addicts in the Philippines’ vicious drug war?

All this criticism, Cardema says, is only pushing Duterte and his fans to feel solidarity with other authoritarian-minded leaders around the world. He is particularly invigorated by Trump’s endorsement of the drug war.

“I think [Duterte] likes President Trump. I think he likes President Putin. I think he likes the Chinese President Xi Jinping. He likes strongman leaders,” Cardema says.

“People who always criticize the Philippines for these 8,000 drug addicts killed,” he says, “are not aware of the sense of hopelessness in our country.”

“Those in the West should ask, ‘Why so many Filipinos are going abroad?’ Ten percent of our population is overseas. The main contributing factor is drugs and criminality. People think they’re safer in other countries.”

On Duterte’s provincial swagger:

For decades, the Philippines has been dominated by wealthy political dynasties living in Manila. But Duterte emerged as a mayor in Davao City, the most populous city outside the capital.

He hails from the southern island of Mindanao — a place troubled by deep poverty and, in recent months, the rise of an ISIS-allied proto-caliphate.

Duterte has called himself a probinsyano, which means “province dweller” or “hick” in Tagalog. Cardema says this speaks deeply to all the Filipinos who feel neglected by elites in Manila.

“He dresses in a simple way. Sometimes he dresses in a regular polo shirt. Sometimes he has shoes that need repair.”

“You can’t see that from other presidents … who try to create an image of elegance. President Duterte wants to stay in touch with the people.”

On Duterte’s obscene language:

Duterte is perhaps best known for his appalling quotes — some likening his drug war to the Holocaust, others calling the pope a “son of a whore.” His temperament during speeches could be described as machismo on rocket fuel.

The latest shocker? After declaring martial law in Mindanao — an attempt to suppress that ISIS-linked insurgency — Duterte told soldiers he’d have their back no matter what. Even if they committed rape.

But Cardema counters that Western critics are too easily wound up by these provocations.

“He makes a lot of jokes,” he says. “Sometimes during a two-hour speech, one minute becomes exaggerated and that’s the one covered by the media. It’s a rape joke, a joke about women, something like that. But if you were there, listening to his two-hour speech, you’d discover what’s in his heart.”