THE tough-talking president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, boasts of killing people, ordering executions or wanting to kill someone about as often as Donald Trump boasts of being rich. But as with Mr Trump, it is hard to know how much to trust Mr Duterte’s boasts. At best, that makes the boss of the Philippines’ police and prosecutors not only a liar, but a cheerleader for extra-judicial killings. At worst, it makes him a criminal who should be in prison, not the presidential palace.

During the many years Mr Duterte was mayor of Davao, the biggest city in the southern part of the country, a vigilante group known as the Davao Death Squad gunned down drug suspects and others whom the gunmen thought were criminals. Mr Duterte has at times seemed to admit involvement in the group and at others denied its existence. In September a former member of the outfit testified to a congressional committee that, as mayor of Davao, Mr Duterte had ordered him and others to kill. Mr Duterte, through a spokesman, denied the accusation.

As a candidate, Mr Duterte promised to “end crime” within six months of taking office by tossing the bodies of criminals into Manila Bay to fatten the fish—a vow so swaggering that it seemed comical at the time. Yet since he became president in June, around 6,000 suspected drug dealers and users have in fact been killed without the benefit of a trial. He has also threatened to kill suspects’ lawyers and human-rights advocates who oppose his bloody but popular war on drugs.

This week he crossed a new Rubicon: he admitted to having killed people himself. “In Davao I used to do it personally,” he told a group of businessmen, “just to show the guys if I can do it, why can’t you?...I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill.”

Did he really kill anyone? Who can say? Just a few hours before this admission, he protested, “I am not a killer.” Mr Duterte’s spokesman has grown adept at walking back or reinterpreting his Grand Guignol statements.

Even if Mr Duterte has killed suspected criminals, would anyone dare bring charges against him? It is unlikely. No prosecutor wants to find himself suddenly out of office, missing or bobbing lifelessly in Manila Bay.