The Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte praised his Sri Lankan counterpart, Maithripala Sirisena for what he described as following the country's 'successful war on drugs'.
The Sri Lankan cabinet this week announced they would implement the death penalty for drug trafficking offences.
Despite widespread criticism of the move, Mr Sirisena defended it saying he was attempting to replicate the 'success' of the Philippines.
Commenting on this at a press briefing this week, Mr Duterte's spokesperson, Harry Roque said, “Of course, we are happy that other countries have taken note of our war on drugs and that they look upon us as best practice on dealing with illegal drugs. So we appreciate that, but as of now, we still have no death penalty."
“Well, I think, we have not reached the point where we will hang them. We are still on the level of really using our police, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Bureau of Investigation and our political will against drug pushers.”
