drug free philippines essay

The human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines

Subscribe to this week in foreign policy, vanda felbab-brown vanda felbab-brown director - initiative on nonstate armed actors , co-director - africa security initiative , senior fellow - foreign policy , strobe talbott center for security, strategy, and technology.

August 8, 2017

• 18 min read

On August 2, 2017, Vanda Felbab-Brown submitted a statement for the record for the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines. Read her full statement below.

I am a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution.  However, as an independent think tank, the Brookings Institution does not take institutional positions on any issue.  Therefore, my testimony represents my personal views and does not reflect the views of Brookings, its other scholars, employees, officers, and/or trustees.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines is morally and legally unjustifiable. Resulting in egregious and large-scale violations of human rights, it amounts to state-sanctioned murder. It is also counterproductive for countering the threats and harms that the illegal drug trade and use pose to society — exacerbating both problems while profoundly shredding the social fabric and rule of law in the Philippines. The United States and the international community must condemn and sanction the government of the Philippines for its conduct of the war on drugs.

THE SLAUGHTER SO FAR

On September 2, 2016 after a bomb went off in Davao where Duterte had been  mayor for 22 years, the Philippine president declared a “state of lawlessness” 1 in the country. That is indeed what he unleashed in the name of fighting crime and drugs since he became the country’s president on June 30, 2016. With his explicit calls for police to kill drug users and dealers 2 and the vigilante purges Duterte ordered of neighborhoods, 3 almost 9000 people accused of drug dealing or drug use were killed in the Philippines in the first year of his government – about one third by police in anti-drug operations. 4 Although portrayed as self-defense shootings, these acknowledged police killings are widely believed to be planned and staged, with security cameras and street lights unplugged, and drugs and guns planted on the victim after the shooting. 5 According to the interviews and an unpublished report an intelligence officer shared with Reuters , the police are paid about 10,000 pesos ($200) for each killing of a drug suspect as well as other accused criminals. The monetary awards for each killing are alleged to rise to 20,000 pesos ($400) for a street pusher, 50,000 pesos ($990) for a member of a neighborhood council, one million pesos ($20,000) for distributors, retailers, and wholesalers, and five million ($100,000) for “drug lords.” Under pressure from higher-up authorities and top officials, local police officers and members of neighborhood councils draw up lists of drug suspects. Lacking any kind transparency, accountability, and vetting, these so-called “watch lists” end up as de facto hit lists. A Reuters investigation revealed that police officers were killing some 97 percent of drug suspects during police raids, 6 an extraordinarily high number and one that many times surpasses accountable police practices. That is hardly surprising, as police officers are not paid any cash rewards for merely arresting suspects. Both police officers and members of neighborhood councils are afraid not to participate in the killing policies, fearing that if they fail to comply they will be put on the kill lists themselves.

Similarly, there is widespread suspicion among human rights groups and monitors, 7 reported in regularly in the international press, that the police back and encourage the other extrajudicial killings — with police officers paying assassins or posing as vigilante groups. 8 A Reuters interview with a retired Filipino police intelligence officer and another active-duty police commander reported both officers describing in granular detail how under instructions from top-level authorities and local commanders, police units mastermind the killings. 9 No systematic investigations and prosecutions of these murders have taken place, with top police officials suggesting that they are killings among drug dealers themselves. 10

Such illegal vigilante justice, with some 1,400 extrajudicial killings, 11 was also the hallmark of Duterte’s tenure as Davao’s mayor, earning him the nickname Duterte Harry. And yet, far from being an exemplar of public safety and crime-free city, Davao remains the murder capital of the Philippines. 12 The current police chief of the Philippine National Police Ronald Dela Rosa and President Duterte’s principal executor of the war on drugs previously served as the police chief in Davao between 2010 and 2016 when Duterte was the town’s mayor.

In addition to the killings, mass incarceration of alleged drug users is also under way in the Philippines. The government claims that more than a million users and street-level dealers have voluntarily “surrendered” to the police. Many do so out of fear of being killed otherwise. However, in interviews with Reuters , a Philippine police commander alleged that the police are given quotas of “surrenders,” filling them by arresting anyone on trivial violations (such as being shirtless or drunk). 13 Once again, the rule of law is fundamentally perverted to serve a deeply misguided and reprehensible state policy.

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SMART DESIGN OF DRUG POLICIES VERSUS THE PHILIPPINES REALITY

Smart policies for addressing drug retail markets look very different than the violence and state-sponsored crime President Duterte has thrust upon the Philippines. Rather than state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings and mass incarceration, policing retail markets should have several objectives: The first, and most important, is to make drug retail markets as non-violent as possible. Duterte’s policy does just the opposite: in slaughtering people, it is making a drug-distribution market that was initially rather peaceful (certainly compared to Latin America, 14 such as in Brazil 15 ) very violent – this largely the result of the state actions, extrajudicial killings, and vigilante killings he has ordered. Worse yet, the police and extrajudicial killings hide other murders, as neighbors and neighborhood committees put on the list of drug suspects their rivals and people whose land or property they want to steal; thus, anyone can be killed by anyone and then labeled a pusher.

The unaccountable en masse prosecution of anyone accused of drug trade involvement or drug use also serves as a mechanism to squash political pluralism and eliminate political opposition. Those who dare challenge President Duterte and his reprehensible policies are accused of drug trafficking charges and arrested themselves. The most prominent case is that of Senator Leila de Lima. But it includes many other lower-level politicians. Without disclosing credible evidence or convening a fair trial, President Duterte has ordered the arrest of scores of politicians accused of drug-trade links; three such accused mayors have died during police arrests, often with many other individuals dying in the shoot-outs. The latest such incident occurred on July 30, 2017 when Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz in the southern Philippines, was killed during a police raid on his house, along with Parojinog’s wife and at least five other people.

Another crucial goal of drug policy should be to enhance public health and limit the spread of diseases linked to drug use. The worst possible policy is to push addicts into the shadows, ostracize them, and increase the chance of overdoses as well as a rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and hepatitis. In prisons, users will not get adequate treatment for either their addiction or their communicable disease. That is the reason why other countries that initially adopted similar draconian wars on drugs (such as Thailand in 2001 16 and Vietnam in the same decade 17 ) eventually tried to backpedal from them, despite the initial popularity of such policies with publics in East Asia. Even though throughout East Asia, tough drug policies toward drug use and the illegal drug trade remain government default policies and often receive widespread support, countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, and even Myanmar have gradually begun to experiment with or are exploring HARM reduction approaches, such as safe needle exchange programs and methadone maintenance, as the ineffective and counterproductive nature and human rights costs of the harsh war on drugs campaign become evident.

Moreover, frightening and stigmatizing drug users and pushing use deeper underground will only exacerbate the spread of infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculosis. Even prior to the Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, the rate of HIV infections in the Philippines has been soaring due to inadequate awareness and failure to support safe sex practices, such as access to condoms. Along with Afghanistan, the Philippine HIV infection rate is the highest in Asia, increasing 50 percent between 2010 and 2015. 18 Among high-risk groups, including injection- drug users, gay men, transgender women, and female prostitutes, the rate of new infections jumped by 230 percent between 2011and 2015. Duterte’s war on drugs will only intensify these worrisome trends among drug users.

Further, as Central America has painfully learned in its struggles against street gangs, mass incarceration policies turn prisons into recruiting grounds for organized crime. Given persisting jihadi terrorism in the Philippines, mass imprisonment of low-level dealers and drug traffickers which mix them with terrorists in prisons can result in the establishment of dangerous alliances between terrorists and criminals, as has happened in Indonesia.

The mass killings and imprisonment in the Philippines will not dry up demand for drugs: the many people who will end up in overcrowded prisons and poorly-designed treatment centers (as is already happening) will likely remain addicted to drugs, or become addicts. There is always drug smuggling into prisons and many prisons are major drug distribution and consumption spots.

Even when those who surrendered are placed into so-called treatment centers, instead of outright prisons, large problems remain. Many who surrendered do not necessarily have a drug abuse problem as they surrendered preemptively to avoid being killed if they for whatever reason ended up on the watch list. Those who do have a drug addiction problem mostly do not receive adequate care. Treatment for drug addiction is highly underdeveloped and underprovided in the Philippines, and China’s rushing in to build larger treatment facilities is unlikely to resolve this problem. In China itself, many so-called treatment centers often amounted to de facto prisons or force-labor detention centers, with highly questionable methods of treatment and very high relapse rates.

As long as there is demand, supply and retailing will persist, simply taking another form. Indeed, there is a high chance that Duterte’s hunting down of low-level pushers (and those accused of being pushers) will significantly increase organized crime in the Philippines and intensify corruption. The dealers and traffickers who will remain on the streets will only be those who can either violently oppose law enforcement and vigilante groups or bribe their way to the highest positions of power. By eliminating low-level, mostly non-violent dealers, Duterte is paradoxically and counterproductively setting up a situation where more organized and powerful drug traffickers and distribution will emerge.

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Inducing police to engage in de facto shoot-to-kill policies is enormously corrosive of law enforcement, not to mention the rule of law. There is a high chance that the policy will more than ever institutionalize top-level corruption, as only powerful drug traffickers will be able to bribe their way into upper-levels of the Philippine law enforcement system, and the government will stay in business. Moreover, corrupt top-level cops and government officials tasked with such witch-hunts will have the perfect opportunity to direct law enforcement against their drug business rivals as well as political enemies, and themselves become the top drug capos. Unaccountable police officers officially induced to engage in extrajudicial killings easily succumb to engaging in all kinds of criminality, being uniquely privileged to take over criminal markets. Those who should protect public safety and the rule of law themselves become criminals.

Such corrosion of the law enforcement agencies is well under way in the Philippines as a result of President Duterte’s war on drugs. Corruption and the lack of accountability in the Philippine police l preceded Duterte’s presidency, but have become exacerbated since, with the war on drugs blatant violations of rule of law and basic legal and human rights principles a direct driver. The issue surfaced visibly and in a way that the government of the Philippines could not simply ignore in January 2017 when Philippine drug squad police officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo and extorted his family for money. Jee was ultimately killed inside the police headquarters. President Duterte expressed outrage and for a month suspended the national police from participating in the war on drugs while some police purges took places. Rather than a serious effort to root out corruption, those purges served principally to tighten control over the police. The wrong-headed illegal policies of Duterte’s war on drugs were not examined or corrected. Nor were other accountability and rule of law practices reinforced. Thus when after a month the national police were was asked to resume their role in the war on the drugs, the perverted system slid back into the same human rights violations and other highly detrimental processes and outcomes.

WHAT COUNTERNARCOTICS POLICIES THE PHILIPPINES SHOULD ADOPT

The Philippines should adopt radically different approaches: The shoot-to-kill directives to police and calls for extrajudicial killings should stop immediately, as should dragnets against low-level pushers and users. If such orders are  issued, prosecutions of any new extrajudicial killings and investigations of encounter killings must follow. In the short term, the existence of pervasive culpability may prevent the adoption of any policy that would seek to investigate and prosecute police and government officials and members of neighborhood councils who have been involved in the state-sanctioned slaughter. If political leadership in the Philippines changes, however, standing up a truth commission will be paramount. In the meantime, however, all existing arrested drug suspects need to be given fair trials or released.

Law-enforcement and rule of law components of drug policy designs need to make reducing criminal violence and violent militancy among their highest objectives. The Philippines should build up real intelligence on the drug trafficking networks that President Duterte alleges exist in the Philippines and target their middle operational layers, rather than low-level dealers, as well as their corruption networks in the government and law enforcement. However, the latter must not be used to cover up eliminating rival politicians and independent political voices.

To deal with addiction, the Philippines should adopt enlightened harm-reduction measures, including methadone maintenance, safe-needle exchange, and access to effective treatment. No doubt, these are difficult and elusive for methamphetamines, the drug of choice in the Philippines. Meth addiction is very difficult to treat and is associated with high morbidity levels. Instead of turning his country into a lawless Wild East, President Duterte should make the Philippines the center of collaborative East Asian research on how to develop effective public health approaches to methamphetamine addiction.

IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY

It is imperative that the United States strongly and unequivocally condemns the war on drugs in the Philippines and deploys sanctions until state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings and other state-authorized rule of law violations are ended. The United States should adopt such a position even if President Duterte again threatens the U.S.-Philippines naval bases agreements meant to provide the Philippines and other countries with protection against China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea. President Duterte’s pro-China preferences will not be moderated by the United States being cowed into condoning egregious violations of human rights. In fact, a healthy U.S.-Philippine long-term relationship will be undermined by U.S. silence on state-sanctioned murder.

However, the United States must recognize that drug use in the Philippines and East Asia more broadly constitute serious threats to society. Although internationally condemned for the war on drugs, President Duterte remains highly popular in the Philippines, with 80 percent of Filipinos still expressing “much trust” for him after a year of his war on drugs and 9,000 people dead. 19 Unlike in Latin America, throughout East Asia, drug use is highly disapproved of, with little empathy for users and only very weak support for drug policy reform. Throughout the region, as well as in the Philippines, tough-on-drugs approaches, despite their ineffective outcomes and human rights violations, often remain popular. Fostering an honest and complete public discussion about the pros and cons of various drug policy approaches is a necessary element in creating public demand for accountability of drug policy in the Philippines.

Equally important is to develop better public health approaches to dealing with methamphetamine addiction. It is devastating throughout East Asia as well as in the United States, though opiate abuse mortality rates now eclipse methamphetamine drug abuse problems. Meth addiction is very hard to treat and often results in severe morbidity. Yet harm reduction approaches have been predominately geared toward opiate and heroin addictions, with substitution treatments, such as methadone, not easily available for meth and other harm reduction approaches also not directly applicable.

What has been happening in the Philippines is tragic and unconscionable. But if the United States can at least take a leading role in developing harm reduction and effective treatment approaches toward methamphetamine abuse, its condemnation of unjustifiable and reprehensible policies, such as President Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines, will far more soundly resonate in East Asia, better stimulating local publics to demand accountability and respect for rule of law from their leaders.

• Neil Jerome Morales, “Philippines Blames IS-linked Abu Sayyaf for Bomb in Duterte’s Davao,” Reuters , September 2, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-blast-idUSKCN11824W?il=0.
• Rishi Iyengar, “The Killing Time: Inside Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s War on Drugs,” Time , August 24, 2016, http://time.com/4462352/rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-drugs-philippines-killing/.
• Jim Gomez, “Philippine President-Elect Urges Public to Kill Drug Dealers,” The Associated Press, June 5, 2016, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/58fc2315d488426ca2512fc9fc8d6427/philippine-president-elect-urges-public-kill-drug-dealers.
• Manuel Mogato and Clare Baldwin, “Special Report: Police Describe Kill Rewards, Staged Crime Scenes in Duterte’s Drug War,” Reuters , April 18, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-duterte-police-specialrep-idUSKBN17K1F4.
• Clare Baldwin , Andrew R.C. Marshall and Damir Sagolj , “Police Rack Up an Almost Perfectly Deadly Record in Philippine Drug War,” Reuters , http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/philippines-duterte-police/.
• See, for example, Human Rights Watch, “Philippines: Police Deceit in ‘Drug War’ Killings,” March 2, 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/02/philippines-police-deceit-drug-war-killings ; and Amnesty International, “Philippines: The Police’s Murderous War on the Poor,” https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/01/philippines-the-police-murderous-war-on-the-poor/.
• Reuters , April 18, 2017.
• Aurora Almendral, “The General Running Duterte’s Antidrug War,” The New York Times , June 2, 2017.
• “A Harvest of Lead,” The Economist , August 13, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21704793-rodrigo-duterte-living-up-his-promise-fight-crime-shooting-first-and-asking-questions.
• Reuters, April 18, 2017.
• Vanda Felbab-Brown and Harold Trinkunas, “UNGASS 2016 in Comparative Perspective: Improving the Prospects for Success,” The Brookings Institution, April 29, 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/FelbabBrown-TrinkunasUNGASS-2016-final-2.pdf?la=en.
• See, for example, Paula Miraglia, “Drugs and Drug Trafficking in Brazil: Trends and Policies,” The Brookings Institution, April 29, 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/Miraglia–Brazil-final.pdf?la=en .
• James Windle, “Drugs and Drug Policy in Thailand,” Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS 2016, The Brookings Institution, April 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/WindleThailand-final.pdf?la=en .
• James Windle, “Drugs and Drug Policy in Vietnam,” Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS 2016, The Brookings Institution, April 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WindleVietnam-final.pdf.
• Aurora Almendral, “As H.I.V. Soars in the Philippines, Conservatives Kill School Condom Plan,” The New York Times , February 28, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/asia/as-hiv-soars-in-philippines-conservatives-kill-school-condom-plan.html?_r=0.
• Nicole Curato, “In the Philippines, All the President’s People,” The New York Times , May 31, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/philippines-rodrigo-duterte.html.

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An Alliance to End Drug Abuse in the Philippines

With “porous borders” and the crannies of its archipelago, the Philippines is an easy target for drug traffickers to exploit. It is both a drug-consuming nation and a trans-shipment hub for methamphetamines, of which it boasts the highest usage rate in East Asia. According to the Dangerous Drugs Board, 1.8 million Filipinos are using illegal drugs.

“Drugs are a huge problem in the Philippines—it simply is a scourge,” says Drug-Free World Ambassador Robert Anderson. “There is a big anti-drug push in the country and the police are the ones on the streets, so they want The Truth About Drugs.”

Anderson organized a two-and-a-half-day pilot training for 100 Philippines National Police (PNP) officers in 2016. General Benjamin Macalong, PNP Deputy Director for Operations, officiated the launch.

The officers were taught to deliver the full Truth About Drugs curriculum and drilled on tough questions youth ask and real-life scenarios. It might be assumed all police are experts on drugs, but this is not so, says one PNP officer: “As a good father who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, I don’t know about illegal drugs…. This seminar is very important for me.”

In addition to learning to deliver the curriculum, the officers trained as trainers so that when they returned to their respective communities they were then able to train more officers to deliver the curriculum. To seed delivery, each graduate received a supply of The Truth About Drugs booklets in both English and Tagalog. On returning home, they got into immediate delivery to local schools and community groups.

Following this successful pilot, the PNP officially partnered with Drug-Free World for a national rollout of The Truth About Drugs program. Witnessing the pilot, the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency and Dangerous Drugs Board joined the next training held in July 2017 to 107 people, who were then gotten into immediate delivery themselves.

From initial overwhelm at the drug problem, officers and officials graduated with hope and purpose. As one expressed, “Having this kind of training made me alarmed and gave me purpose to do something, something that can be beneficial to youth….Thank you very much to the members of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World for helping and supporting us—the Filipino people—to eradicate drug abuse.…This is something worthy to treasure and remember.”

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If you have successfully used The Truth About Drugs materials or curriculum and would like to share your challenges and successes with others, we’d like to hear from you for the possibility of being featured in a future newsletter.

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Philippines’ War on Drugs: Its Implications to Human Rights in Social Work Practice

• Published: 03 September 2018
• Volume 3 , pages 138–148, ( 2018 )

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Since President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s ascension to the presidency in July 2016, he weaves and pursues his own brand of authoritarianism. Riding on his popularity, he raises the issue of illegal drugs as a question of national survival for the nation. With this obsession, Duterte has unleashed the entire police force with the state’s resources on his war on drugs. In more than a year of its implementation, the war on drugs has created havoc in the lives of the Filipino people. Furthermore, it has promoted a culture of impunity, and fear has gripped the nation. With the worsening human rights situation, human rights in social work practice in the Philippines grapples with the multi-faceted effects of the war on drugs. Given the specificity of needs and circumstances of the violations, the social work profession can and should respond to the unfolding challenges through various interventions at the individual, family, and community levels.

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Espenido, G. Philippines’ War on Drugs: Its Implications to Human Rights in Social Work Practice. J. Hum. Rights Soc. Work 3 , 138–148 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-018-0071-6

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The Philippine War on Drugs

The Philippines, Asia/Pacific

The Philippine War on Drugs refers to the violence inflicted upon suspected drug affiliates by former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Duterte enforced a hard stance on eradication over rehabilitation when dealing with the crisis. Since June 2016, thousands of people have been killed by police in drug raids, and by unnamed vigilante killers who are rumoured to be executing drug users on behalf of the former President. As a result, the war on drugs in the Philippines made the country the fourth most dangerous in the world, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

The Philippine National Police have been accused of staging murders by planting drugs and weapons on their victims.  While drug users are given the option of registering with authorities in exchange for safety, many of these registered users have still lost their lives due to police brutality. These government-led attacks have impacted children and newborns, especially within poverty-stricken areas. The areas that have been most highly targeted are Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and the National Capital Region.

The war on drugs has been met with international condemnation by organizations like the United Nations and various human rights groups. Duterte’s actions have been described as “crimes against humanity” and a recent UN report called for an “independent, impartial, credible investigation into all allegations of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.” In response, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the International Criminal Court and has repeatedly rejected the findings from human rights investigations while intensifying his crackdown, claiming that the drug problem has “worsened.” Meanwhile, the death toll continues to climb, and many of the victims and their families have yet to receive justice.

The recent election of Ferdinand Marcos Jnr as President of the Philippines has potentially added a new dimension to the ongoing war on drugs. The incoming President has promised a tough approach but one that also focuses on rehabilitation for offenders and the targeting of bigger players in the drug trade, not individual users. While it is uncertain whether his pre election statements will match his policies, this to the last eight years of death squads and the targeting of drug users in poorer Philippine communities.

Allegations of drug-trafficking offenses should be judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets. Agnes Callamard, Human Rights Activist

Estimated 12,000 People killed

14 mayors/deputies killed, ongoing since 2016.

Population:  106.7 million

Deaths:  The government officially records 6,248 deaths, but human rights groups claim the figure is closer to 12,000.

Surrendered drug users:  1.3 million

Drug related arrests:

• High valued arrests: 8,185
• Drug suspects arrested: Approximately 300,000

Uninvestigated homicides:  more than 16,000 estimated

Drug users in the Philippines:  estimated between 1.8 to 4 million

Seized methamphetamine:  40.39 billion pesos (US$796m) seized by police

The Key Actors

Former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines initiated the drug war during his presidential campaign, promising to eradicate drugs from the country.

The Philippine National Police are the main participants in executing Duterte’s drug campaign through their 190,000 officers. The PNP have been accused of corruption throughout the entire Drug War, even by President Duterte himself.

The Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is responsible for investigating, preventing and combatting drug use in the Philippines through their drug enforcement officers. All other units carrying out anti-drug operations (like the PNP) must co-operate with the PDEA. The PDEA existed before the Duterte’s Drug War and have been operating since 2002. While there are much less corruption allegations against them compared to the PNP, they have admitted to targeting poor drug personalities who are likely to lose in court.

The Armed Forces have been a part of the Drug War since February 2017, to replace the PNP while they were under investigation. They have a battalion-sized force targeting high level drug personalities. Although the PNP have returned to the Drug War, the Military’s presence remains.

The National Bureau of Investigation is a government department responsible for investigating and targeting high profile cases through their Task Force against Illegal Drugs (TFAID). They work alongside the PNP, PDEA and the military.

The unidentified vigilantes refer to the killers who target drug suspects, who are believed to be working for President Duterte. Duterte allegedly hires unemployed citizens to help control the country’s drug problem.

The government’s target: drug lords, distributers and users. Thousands have been killed, however many people who are not associated with drugs have been caught in the crossfire, including children. There has been no violent retaliation from the Philippine drug community.

The United Nations Humans Rights Council began investigating President Duterte’s Drug War in July 2019 under suspected extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and crimes against humanity.

President Marcos Jnr was elected on 10 May in what was a landslide victory. He is the son of the former dictator of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Snr, who ruled the nation from 1965 to 1986. During his presidential campaign, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jnr promised to maintain Mr Duterte’s anti-drugs effort, but to “do it with love”. The President has pledged more funding for rehabilitation programs and to shift enforcement towards the larger drug dealers, rather than poorer users.

Timeline of the crisis

Rodrigo Duterte of the The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino political party was elected President after serving several terms as the Mayor of Davao City.

Duterte urged the Communist Rebels (New People’s Army) and civilians to kill drug lords and drug users.

The Philippine National Police announced that they have killed 30 people in drug raids in the three days since Duterte became president.

Communist Rebels gave their New People’s Army permission to fight in the Drug War alongside Duterte’s forces.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, The Philippines’ largest Islamic rebel group, announced they were open to siding with the government and participating in the drug war.

The Communist Party removes their support for Duterte’s Drug war, citing their concerns of extrajudicial killings.

Duterte threatened to leave the UN after their human rights experts asked him to stop giving vigilantes permission to kill drug suspects on his behalf.

The U.S. State Department expressed concern over Duterte meeting his human rights obligations through his violent approach to the drug war.

Following the September 2 bombing in Davao City that left 14 dead, Duterte declared a state of emergency over the whole country. Duterte declared there would be “ensured coordinated efforts” between the government, police, and military against terrorism and drugs.

A Senior PNP Police Officer told The Guardian he is part of a special operative squad responsible for assassinating people on Duterte’s hit list. The unnamed officer said they either dump the bodies, or label them as “drug lord” or “pusher” to deter investigations into the deaths. He claims he killed 87 people since the beginning of Duterte’s presidency.

Duterte revealed his watch list of people participating in the Filipino drug industry, which includes thousands of police officers, mayors, and officials.

The U.S. halted the sale of 2,600 rifles to the PNP due to  human rights concerns.

The UN Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights released a report stating there was no legitimate proof that the Filipino Government was conducting extrajudicial executions to eradicate their drug problem.

Under pressure from human rights groups, Duterte withdrew the police from the drug war, leaving operations to the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency with support from The Armed Forces of the Philippines (the military).

Thousands gathered in Manila to protest for and against Duterte’s drug war on the 31 st  anniversary of the Philippines pro-democracy movement.

Duterte claimed he needs more men and brought some PNP officers back into the drug campaign.

A Reuters investigation revealed police have been intentionally rushing drug suspect victims who are already dead to hospital as an excuse to hide the bodies and tamper with the crime scene.

The mayor of Ozamiz City Reynaldo Parojinog, his wife, and 13 others were killed by police in an early morning raid of his home. Police claimed they had a search warrant and found drugs and excessive weaponry in the residence.

Bulacan police’s “one-time big-time” drug operation left 32 dead and 107 arrested. Among the fatalities was 17 year old Kian delos Santos. His death caused controversy as Police accounts did not match CCTV footage and witness statements of the incident. 19 year old Carl Angelo Arnaiz and their 14 year-old friend Reynaldo de Guzman were also killed. In response, Human Rights Watch repeated their call for a UN investigation, accusing the PNP of deliberately targeting children.

62 Caloocan Police Officers were fired in response to the youth killings. Philippine’s National Capital Region Police Director Oscar Albayalde ordered the department re-ordering to show they did not tolerate police crime.

Duterte admitted to stabbing someone to death as a teenager at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam to justify his administration’s violent approach to cracking down on drugs.

Duterte brought police back into the drug campaign, citing that drug crime is increasing without them.

The number of people killed in anti-drug operations nearly doubled from the previous month.

The UN Human Rights Council released a joint statement supported by 38 member states calling on the Philippines and President Duterte to stop the killings and abuses of the drug war.

Tanauan mayor Antioni Hall was assassinated during a flag raising ceremony. He was the 11th local government official to be killed during the drug war.

Families of drug war victims filed a second petition to the International Criminal Court calling for the indictment of President Duterte for alleged crimes against humanity committed during his drug war.

Senator Trillanes, an outspoken critic of President Duterte, was arrested on charges of rebellion.

Two bombs exploded near a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, which claimed the lives of 15 civilians and five soldiers and wounded 111 others. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Social Weather Station, a social research institution in the Philippines, released their survey findings that 82% of Filipinos were satisfied with Duterte’s drug war. However, 78% were worried that they, or someone they know, might be a victim of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances. Nevertheless, the National Police Chief of the Philippine, General Oscar Albayalde, questioned the validity of the survey, claiming that “It shouldn’t be surprising that 78 percent are afraid of getting killed. Who isn’t afraid to die, anyway?”

The Philippines formally withdrew from the International Criminal Court after the country’s highest court refused to overrule Duterte’s decision to do so. 

President Duterte announced he would order the police and military to shoot dead anyone “who creates trouble” during COVID-19 lockdowns on the island of Luzon. “Do not intimidate the government. Do not challenge the government. You will lose,” he added.

After the Philippine seized 756kg of crystal methamphetamine, president Duterte issued a grave threat to drug dealers, “I will kill you,” he said. This occurred a day after the UN found “near impunity” in his drug war.

President Duterte signed the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows for warrantless arrests and for suspects to be jailed without charge for weeks. While the law was intended to prevent and penalize terrorism, human rights groups worry it will be used by Duterte to attack political opponents and restrict free speech.

Duterte announced he wanted to reintroduce the death penalty for drug offenders during his State of the Nation Address.

In a televised interview, President Duterte said that he suspected extrajudicial killings may have occurred under his drug crackdown. He suggested that this was likely due to rivalry between syndicates or for stealing drug money. For years, Duterte’s critics and human rights groups have claimed that extrajudicial killings have taken place. 

Fatou Bensouda, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, stated there is “reasonable basis to believe” that crimes against humanity have been committed during Duterte’s war on drugs. The resulting report listed murder, torture, and infliction of serious physical injury and mental harm.

In a  speech  before the  UN  Human Rights Council ,  Philippine Justice Secretary  Menardo  Guevarra   admits  that police   did not properly examine many weapons used in drug war killings, refuting usual police claims that drug suspects are usually killed after fighting back.  

The Manila Standard has reported on May 25, 2021 that the Philippine national Police will collaborate with DOJ to investigate EJKs, illegal drug operations and other related cases. On Friday, Justice Secretary Menardo Gueverra and PNP Chief Gen.Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, discussed these ‘two areas of immediate concern,’ and Guevarra announced that the PNP will be signing an agreement for closer cooperation. ‘What is significant right now is that the DOJ has been given free access [to the 61 cases where clear liability was established], something that did not happen in previous years, thereby making our review rather difficult.’

On Friday, CHR spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia positively welcomed the announcement, saying that it ‘is significant in rebuilding confidence and trust in the institution and the government in general.’ She encouraged the PNP ‘to sustain this momentum of fostering a positive attitude towards human rights and translate these commitments into actual effects on the ground.’

Bulacan police director Col.Lawrence Cajipe announced that 7 drug suspects were killed in a police shootout and 53 drug suspects were arrested in sting operations in the towns of Pulilan, Bustos, Pandi, Obando, and Balagtas. During the string of separate operations in 21 towns and 3 cities beginning on May 28, 127 plastic sachets of shabu (crystal meth) were also recovered.

On 1 Jun 2021, Police Gen.Guillermo Eleazar stated that the Department of Justice (DOJ) cannot release all of the 61 cases as planned, and only 53 will be released. ‘Through our arrangement with the DOJ, only the resolved cases will be forwarded to them,’ he said. In a public address aired the night before, Duterte said that the drug war documents are not public documents, as they involve national security issues. Justice Sec.Menardo Guevana then acknowledged in response that the justice department will ‘play it by ear.’

In a 57-page report, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda formally requested judicial authorization to investigate the crimes against humanity case filed against President Duterte. She determined that ‘there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed on the territory of the Philippines between July 2016 and March 2019 in the context of the government’s ‘War on Drugs’ campaign.’ Emphasizing that the available information from investigations have confirmed the Philippine National Police’s involvement in these extra-judicial killings, she intends to resolve all cases placed under preliminary investigation under her term.

On 15 th June 2021, the ICC called for an investigation into the extrajudicial killings orchestrated by the Duterte government. Despite, Duterte formally withdrawing the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, this investigation is being pursued to hold the government account for the crimes committed between 2016 and 2019 while the Philippines was still a member of the organisation. The ICC has begun to receive submissions from victims to ascertain the full scope of the crimes committed and peoples affected. This move by the ICC has been supported by civil society groups in the Philippines and other international NGOs.

On 7 th of July 2021, President Duterte announced that he was “seriously thinking” about running for Vice President in the upcoming 2022 election. In the Philippine political system, the Vice President is elected separately from the President. If Duterte were to run for Vice President and win, this would circumvent the presidential term limit. Thus, allowing him to continue pursuing his drug war and extending his political and legal immunities which protect him from consequences of this policy.

On 25 th August 2021, Rodrigo Duterte announced his plans to run as vice president as his current presidential term is planned to end in 2022. As part of his vice-presidential campaign Duterte is aiming to continue his drug war commenced during his presidential tenure and extend the political protections afforded to him by his position.

On 27 th August 2021, the ICC Registry released a report pertaining to the findings from victim submissions gathered in prior months. From the 204 qualified forms collected, 192 indicated that they wanted an investigation to go ahead. The full report can be accessed here .

On November 22, The Free Legal Assistant Group, a civil society organisation of lawyers, have implored that the ICC suspends the suspension of its investigation into the war on drugs. They insist that the investigation being performed by the government is ineffectual for multitude of reasons stemming from the limited scope of the investigation. The timeframe excludes Duterte’s mayoral tenure in Davao, the cases included in the investigation represent only a fraction of the killings, there is a lack of interviews with victims and other government agencies are not providing sufficient information, and when these investigations to find incidents of wrongdoing they are not being referred to the court.

International organisation, Human Rights Watch have also issued a statement, urging the ICC to resume the investigation.

On January 13, Leni Robredo announced that should she win the presidential election in 2022 she would continue to fight against illicit drugs in the Philippines but do away with the extreme violence which has characterised President Duterte’s effort. In 2019 she was appointed to co-lead the joint task force to eliminate the illicit drug trade in the Philippines and was dismissed from that role within 3 weeks of her appointment, due to her loud opposition to the methods used. In 2020 Robredo had publicly published the 40-page document of recommendations written during her time on the task force.

On February 4, the 5-year term of burial site leases are ending and the families of victims of the drug war cannot afford to continue to pay them. Consequently, the bodies are being exhumed. Catholic priests are leading programs that attempt to raise funds for families to arrange cremations for the deceased and other assistance for the widows and orphans created by the drug war.

On February 9, Leila de Lima confirmed her campaign to run for the Senate in the May elections. de Lima was the human rights commissioner in Benigno Aquino’s administration and won a senate seat in the 2016 elections. One of her major projects was an investigation into Duterte’s mayoral tenure in Davao. With the ascension of Duterte to the presidency in 2016, de Lima was arrested, and then jailed, for allegedly violating the drug trafficking law – many believe this arrest was politically motivated. She will be running her campaign from her detention centre. A major feature of her campaign will be to correct the illiberalism that has been fostered during the Duterte presidency.

On February 17, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the human rights violations in the Philippines. The seven-page document sweeps across the variety of human rights abuses that have occurred while prosecuting the war on drugs and other acts of state endorsed violence like the harassing of journalists or illegal detainment of political opponents. The resolution makes clear that should the Philippines not correct these policy decisions, Manilla risks losing its General Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status which would effectively shut Filipino exports out of the vast European market. The full text of the resolution can be read here .

On February 26, CNN Philippines hosted the Vice-Presidential Debate and during the televised event all but one of the candidates in attendance supported the Philippines re-joining and cooperating with the ICC’s investigation into President Duterte’s war on drugs. Sarah Duterte declined to attend the debate. The full debate can be watched here – the question on the drug war begins at 1:15:00.

On March 4, the Department of Justice ordered the filing of murder and planting of evidence charges against three police officers connected to the killing of a Spanish national, Diego Lafuente, in 2020. Lafuente was identified by police as being an important figure in the local drug trade. The official report claimed Lafuente violently resisted arrest and was killed in a shootout with police. However, the police report was not substantiated with independent eyewitness accounts. Further forensic investigation and inconsistences between the statements of the officers disproves the claim that a shootout occurred.

The Philippines National Police (PNP) launched the Anti-Illegal Drug Operation through Reinforcement and Education (ADORE), which has been marketed as the final operational shift within the war on drugs. ADORE aims to be a state-backed rehabilitation program that reframes substance abuse as a treatable medical condition. PNP aims to use the program to perform outreach into drug-affected communities and support the growth of the healthcare system. ADORE is intended to operate in conjunction with the pre-existing anti-illegal drug taskforces implemented throughout the Duterte presidency.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched an investigation into allegations of falsified death certificates. Examination of the remains of 46 people who were killed in the first year of the drug war has revealed significant discrepancies between the stated cause of death on the certificate and the physical evidence in seven cases. For example, victims that had died from gunshot wounds were listed as having died from natural causes like pneumonia or heart attacks. Additionally, several certificates were incomplete, and one certificate was missing. Of the 46 victims that were exhumed, at least 32 died of gunshot wounds and at least 24 people were shot in the head. This physical evidence contradicts the official police directives to only kill in self-defence. 

Polling suggests that the two favourites for the impending election are Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and Vice President Leni Robredo. While Ms Robredo is a human rights lawyer and current Vice President, Marcos Jnr is the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Snr, who ruled the Philippines from 1965 to 1986.

Hundreds of thousands of people have attended political rallies in the Philippines today where presidential candidates are making last minute speeches to sway undecided voters. The two front runners are Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and Vice President Leni Robredo. 

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has won a landslide victory to become the next President of the Philippines. The victory is the first majority victory since 1986, the same election that toppled his dictator father, Marcos Snr. This represents a once unthinkable return to power for the Marcos family after Marcos Snr was ousted from power and sent into exile after a twenty year rule.

The victor of yesterday’s election in the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, has used a speech to promise to work for all in the Philippines and to judge him on his actions, not his families past. The incoming Presidents father, Marcos Snr, ruled the Philippines as dictator for twenty years and was notorious for human rights abuses and corruption. 

Outgoing President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte is unlikely to face trial for the thousands of killings during his administrations war on drugs. This comes as his daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, becomes Vice President, meaning that Duterte is likely to be protected by the incoming government.

President-elect, Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is on track to command a large majority in Congress, increasing his chances of advancing his legislative agenda. This comes as the incoming President has promised to focus on targeting ‘bigger fish’ in the Philippine drugs trade rather than users.

A joint session of the Philippines Congress has declared Ferdinand Marcos Jnr as the official winner of the national election. The proclamation formalises the election victory from earlier this month. The incoming President will officially take power on 30 June.

It has been reported that books about the incoming Presidents late father, Ferdinand Marcos Snr, are being bought on mass with fears that the new President will attempt to ban all evidence of his father’s reign. This comes as the Marcos family has long attempted the rehabilitation of its name, after Marcos Snr’s reign was mired in corruption and human rights abuses.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s latest data has revealed that a total of 6,248 suspects were killed and 341,494 suspects were arrested in the 236,620 drug war operations since 2016. Human rights advocates claim that the unofficial death toll is much higher.

United States government officials will meet with President Marcos Jnr to discuss a range of issues, including human rights in the Philippines. This raises hope that the US will pressure the new President to take a more humane approach to drug users.

The daughter of the former president, Sara Duterte-Carpio, has been sworn in as Vice President of the Philippines. It remains to be seen whether this has any influence on the government policy relating to the countries war on drugs.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte has criticised the International Criminal Court’s decision to reopen the investigation into killings during the government’s crackdown on drugs. While the Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019, the court still has jurisdiction for events between 2011 and the year of withdrawal.

Maria Ressa, the head of the Rappler news website, has said that they were continuing to operate while Philippine courts will decide whether a government order to close the outlet is legal. The website has been critical of former President Rodrigo Duterte and the country’s deadly drug crackdown. Earlier in the week the government moved to strip Rappler news of its license in response to this criticism.

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has promised to “deliver for all Filipinos” during his inauguration speech. Marcos Jnr also used the speech to praise his father, Marcos Snr, who ruled the Philippines as dictator between 1965 to 1986. This comes as human rights activists fear that this is another move by the new President to white wash the dark history of the Philippines under his father.

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, the son of former dictator, Marcos Snr, has begun his term as president of the Philippines 36 years after his father was overthrown. The new president has promised to “strive for unity and a better future” while also praising his father’s legacy.

Filipino Nobel peace prize winner, Maria Ressa, has lost her appeal against a conviction for cyber libel according to her news website, Rappler. Ressa now faces a lengthy jail sentence but Rappler has vowed to take this to the supreme court. While these charges were brought by the former president, it is a disturbing development in terms of human rights under the new President, Marcos Jnr

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has condemned a decision by a court in the Philippines to uphold the conviction of Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa. Clooney has also called on the new President, Macros Jnr, to “stop the rot” and stop attacks on journalists.

The Philippines Supreme Court has acquitted former President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on charges of plunder. Ms Arroyo was charged with misusing $366 million of lottery funds intended for charities.

Three people have died in a shooting in Manilla, including a former mayor of the southern city of Lamitan city, Rose Furigay. Police claim that this was an assassination and raises questions over whether gun violence will continue under President Marcos Jnr.

The Philippine House of Representatives have elected President Marcos Jnr’s son, Sandro Marcos, to the post of senior deputy majority leader. While Sandro was elected, it raised concerns about nepotism in Filipino politics under the new Marcos regime.

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the northern Philippine island of Luzon, killing at least five people, damaging buildings. Authorities report that at least 64 people were injured and 173 buildings damaged.

Former Philippine President, Fidel Ramos, has died aged 94. Ramos, known as “steady Eddie”, was in power between 1992 and 1998 and oversaw economic growth and peace in the Philippines.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has ruled out the Philippines rejoining the International Criminal Court. This is a contentious decision considering the ICC plans to resume an investigation into the Duterte governments deadly war on drugs. Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, accusing it of prejudice in response to the preliminary examination of the war on drugs.

United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has called the Philippines an “irreplicable ally” while meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. This comes as relations were damaged under former President Rodrigo Duterte, who rejected US criticism of his human rights record. This raises questions about how the US will react to human rights concerns under Marcos Jnr.

The arrest of former Philippines vice presidential candidate, Walden Bello, on charges of cyber libel has raised concerns about freedom of speech under President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. Bello, also a prominent human rights activist, was arrested in Quezon City.

The Philippines Statistics Authority has announced that approximately 2.3 million Filipinos were pushed into poverty between 2018 and 2021, largely due to the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The report stated that the total number of people living in poverty rose to almost 20 million, which is 18.1 per cent of the population.

The body of a teenager killed in a shooting during the Philippines war on drugs has been exhumed for an autopsy as his family demand to learn more about his death. Kian Delos Santos was 17 when police shot and killed him in an act police claim was self-defence. This is a potential challenge to the widely criticised claim that all 6,252 officially reported killings were in self-defence.

Filipino journalists have warned that the Marcos government will continue the hard line position of his predecessor against critics from the media. This comes as attacks on press freedom occurred during the transition, with two dozen media web sites blocked and accused of links to “communist terrorist groups”. This raises concerns about human rights in the Philippines.

Today marks the 30 th anniversary of the assignation of former Senator Benigno Aquino Jnr in 1983. Aquino Jnr was murdered by a kill squad allegedly ordered by former President Ferdinand Marcos Snr, the father of the current President, Marcos Jnr. President Marcos Jnr did not issue a statement to commemorate the day as was the tradition of previous presidents. This raising further concerns about Marcos Jnr’s attempts to whitewash the history of his father’s dictatorial regime.

Muslim rebels have killed a police chief in Ampatuan in the Southern Philippines while wounding three others. Philippine authorities report that ten men opened fire on a vehicle in Maguindanao province. The suspects were believed to be members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

The Marcos Jnr government has used national press freedom day to publicly state that it respects press freedom. This comes as journalists have raised concerns about press freedom in the Philippines under former President Duterte and now under Marcos Jnr.

The Supreme Court of the Philippines has lifted a restraining order, issues in 2016, on the Commission of Elections. The restraining order was in response to the commission moving to allow ‘persons deprived of liberty’ to vote in regional and national elections. This represents a victory for the rule of law and human rights in the Philippines.

The Solicitor General of the Philippines, Menardo Guevarra, has stated that drug war killings under former President Rodrigo Duterte do not constitute crimes against humanity. This comes as the International Criminal Court resumed their probe into the war on drugs in the Philippines under the former president.

Human rights activists have criticised President Marcos Jnr’s attempts to create a public holiday for his father, for President Marcos Snr. This raises fears that Marcos Jnr is seeking to revise history and repress and any attempts to remember the brutal regime under Marcos Snr.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has publicly said that describing his father, Marcos Snr, as a ‘dictator’ is wrong. This has raised fears among human rights activists that Marcos Jnr is seeking to rewrite history as Marcos Snr’s regime is well known for its human rights abuses and corruption throughout the 1970’s.

Gunmen have killed three soldiers in an ambush in Basilan at the same time President Marcos Jnr visited he region. The perpetrators were not from Abu Sayyaf or any other major rebel group. However, this raises concerns about a resurgence of violence after years of peace.

Philippine survivors of torture and human rights abuses under former President Ferdinand Marcos Snr have marked the 50 th anniversary of his declaration of martial law by demanding justice and an apology from his son, President Marcos Jnr. These activists held protests and released a documentary at the University of the Philippines to prevent a repeat of the abuses from the former Marcos regime. This comes are human rights advocates fear for the rights of Philippine citizens under Marcos Jnr.

A Philippine court has dismissed a government attempt to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines a terrorist organisation. In making its decision, the court asked the government to fight the communist insurgency with “respect for the right to dissent due to the process of the rule of law”. This decision represents a victory for freedom of association in the Philippines.

Prominent journalist, Percival Mabasa, has been shot dead while driving in Manila. The shooting has been widely condemned by media groups and human rights activists who describe the murder as a blow to press freedom in the Philippines.

The Philippine National Union of Journalists has released a public statement criticising the government for failing to protect journalists from harm. This comes as prominent Philippine journalists, Percival Mabasa, was shot dead.

Philippine police have killed three imprisoned militants linked to Islamic State after they staged an attempted escape while holding a former senator hostage. Leila de Lima, a former opposition senator, has been detained since 2017 and has been facing a trial for drug charges she says were fabricated by former President Rodrigo Duterte and his officials in an attempt to muzzle her criticism of his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs.

Activists have demanded the release of former Philippine opposition senator, Leila de Lima, after she was taken hostage by jailed militants who attempted to escape. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have expressed their concern over the situation and have called for de Lima’s immediate release from prison.

The National Union of People’s Lawyers has claimed that at least 133 lawyers have been killed in the Philippines since the 1980’s in work-related. The Union reveals that half of this number were killed in the last six years during President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in power.

The military has reported that ‘communist rebels’ have killed two soldiers in an attack on Malibcong town in Abra Province. One soldier is also reported missing but it is unclear whether they were taken by the rebel group.

A homemade bomb has exploded in a bus, killing one and wounding ten people, in the southern city of Tacurong City. Police are attempting to descerne whether this attack was committed by one of the armed rebel groups in the region.

Philippine police have accused the Director General of the Bureau of Corrections, Gerald Bantag, of murdering a radio journalist last month. Police allege that Bantag, who has been suspended from duty, ordered the murder of Percival Mabasa, who was shot dead in Manila on 3 October.

The Philippine military has fought a gun battle with armed rebels on the southern island of Basilan, resulting in the death of three soldiers and four dead rebels. This event sparks fears of an escalation between the military and armed rebel groups after years of de-escalation attempts.

The Philippine military has signed a ceasefire deal with Muslim rebels after 10 combatants were killed in Basilan. This came after a clash between both forces in the village of Ulitan, leading to talks taking place.

The national police chief the of Philippines, General Rodolfo Azurin, has stated that killings in anti-drug operations will be minimised “as much as possible”. This comes as the Marcos regime faces pressure from human rights groups of the alleged continuation of deaths resulting from these operations, something it pledged to stop.

Philippine authorities have reportedly killed 46 drug suspects while arresting 22,000 others since Marcos Jr began his term as president. In his election campaign, Marcos vowed to prevent deaths from anti-drug operations by taking a more holistic approach to drug use and trafficking, including prevention and rehabilitation.

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A World Court Inches Closer To A Reckoning In The Philippines' War On Drugs

Julie McCarthy

Relatives and friends mourn during Lilibeth Valdez's funeral on June 4 in Manila, Philippines. An off-duty police officer was seen pulling the hair of 52-year-old Valdez, before shooting her dead. The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court recommended the court open an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed during President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images hide caption

Relatives and friends mourn during Lilibeth Valdez's funeral on June 4 in Manila, Philippines. An off-duty police officer was seen pulling the hair of 52-year-old Valdez, before shooting her dead. The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court recommended the court open an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed during President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war.

After years of a deadly counternarcotics campaign that has riven the Philippines, the International Criminal Court is a step closer to opening what international law experts say would be its first case bringing crimes against humanity charges in the context of a drug war.

On June 14, the last day of her nine-year term as the ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda announced there was "a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder" had been committed in the war on drugs carried out under the government of President Rodrigo Duterte. Bensouda urged the court to open a full-scale investigation into the bloody crackdown between July 1, 2016, when Duterte took office, and March 16, 2019, when the Philippines' withdrawal from the ICC took effect.

Said at first to be unfazed by the prosecutor's findings of alleged murder under his watch, Duterte went on to rail against the international court in his June 21 "Talk to the People," vowing, in an invective-filled rant, never to submit to its jurisdiction. "This is bulls***. Why would I defend or face an accusation before white people? You must be crazy," Duterte scoffed. (The 18 judges on the ICC are an ethnically diverse group from around the world . And Bensouda, from Gambia, is the first female African to serve as the court's chief prosecutor.)

The drug war has been a signature policy of President Duterte's administration, and its brutality has drawn international condemnation. But for years the world has stood by as allegations of human rights violations accumulated, and Duterte barred international investigators. The findings of the chief prosecutor represent the most prominent record to date of the killings committed under the Philippines' anti-narcotics campaign and set the stage for a potential legal reckoning for its perpetrators.

"It wasn't a rushed decision," Manila-based human rights attorney Neri Colmenares says of Bensouda's three years of examination, which "makes the case stronger." He says, "It is not yet justice, but it is a major step toward that."

The prosecutor's findings

Bensouda's final report says the nationwide anti-drug campaign deployed "unnecessary and disproportionate" force. The information the prosecutor gathered suggests "members of Philippine security forces and other, often associated, perpetrators deliberately killed thousands of civilians suspected to be involved in drug activities." The report cites Duterte's statements encouraging law enforcement to kill drug suspects, promising police immunity, and inflating numbers, claiming there were variously "3 million" and "4 million" addicts in the Philippines. The government itself puts the figures of drug users at 1.8 million.

Fatou Bensouda speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in The Hague, Netherlands, June 14, before ending her nine-year tenure as chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. Peter Dejong/AP hide caption

Fatou Bensouda speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in The Hague, Netherlands, June 14, before ending her nine-year tenure as chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.

The Philippines' Drug Enforcement Agency reports more than 6,100 drug crime suspects have been killed in police operations since Duterte became president. But Bensouda says, "Police and other government officials planned, ordered, and sometimes directly perpetrated" killings outside official police operations. Independent researchers estimate the drug war's death toll, including those extrajudicial killings, could be as high as 12,000 to 30,000 .

The international court's now former prosecutor based her findings on evidence gathered in part from families of slain suspects, their testimonials redacted from her report to protect their identities. She cited rights groups such as Amnesty International that detailed how police planted evidence at crime scenes, fabricated official reports, and pilfered belongings from victims' homes.

Colmenares, who is a former congressman, says the police appeared to have a modus operandi. "Sometimes the police would go into the house and segregate the family from the father or the son, and then later on the father and the son would be killed. The witnesses say that the husband was already kneeling or raising their hand," he says.

Colmenares says in the prevailing atmosphere of impunity in the Philippines, families are "courageous" for bearing witness.

Police self-defense debunked

Police have justified the killings by saying that the suspects put up a struggle, requiring the use of deadly force, a scenario they call nanlaban . Duterte himself said last week, "We kill them because they fight back." Duterte fears that if drastic measures were not taken, the Philippines could wind up in the sort of destabilizing narco-conflict that afflicts Mexico. "What will then happen to my country?"

Bensouda rejects police claims that they acted in self-defense, citing witness testimony, and findings of rights groups such as Amnesty International .

In February, the Philippines' own Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra conceded to the United Nations Human Rights Council that the police's nanlaban argument is often deeply flawed. His ministry had reviewed many incident reports where police said suspects were killed in shootouts. "Yet, no full examination of the weapon recovered was conducted. No verification of its ownership was undertaken. No request for ballistic examination or paraffin test was pursued," he said .

Supporters of Kian delos Santos attend a vigil on Nov. 29, 2018, outside a Manila police station where officers thought to be involved in the teenager's killing were assigned. Three Philippine policemen were sentenced to decades in prison for murdering delos Santos during an anti-narcotics sweep. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Supporters of Kian delos Santos attend a vigil on Nov. 29, 2018, outside a Manila police station where officers thought to be involved in the teenager's killing were assigned. Three Philippine policemen were sentenced to decades in prison for murdering delos Santos during an anti-narcotics sweep.

Despite that, only a single case has resulted in the prosecution and conviction of three police officers for the murder of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in August 2017, after the incident sparked national outrage. Police accused delos Santos, a student, of being a drug-runner, a charge his family denied. When the teenager was found dead in an alley, police said they had killed him in self-defense. CCTV footage contradicted the police version of events.

"Duterte Harry"

Bensouda buttresses her case by citing Duterte's 22 years as mayor of Davao City on the island of Mindanao, where her report says he "publicly supported and encouraged the killing of petty criminals and drug dealers," ostensibly to enforce discipline on a city besieged by crime, a communist rebellion, and an active counterinsurgency campaign .

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Former police officials testified to the existence of a death squad that acted on the orders of then-Mayor Duterte and which rights groups allege carried out more than 1,400 killings .

Bensouda's report says Duterte's central focus on fighting crime and drug use earned him monikers such as " The Punisher " and " Duterte Harry ," and in 2016 he rode that strongman image to the presidency in a country that had been battling drug syndicates for decades and was weary of crime.

A policeman comes out of the shanty home of two brothers and an unidentified man who were killed during an operation as part of the continuing war on drugs in Manila, Philippines, Oct. 6, 2016. Aaron Favila/AP hide caption

A policeman comes out of the shanty home of two brothers and an unidentified man who were killed during an operation as part of the continuing war on drugs in Manila, Philippines, Oct. 6, 2016.

In a 2016 address to the national police, he warned drug criminals who would harm the nation's sons and daughters: "I will kill you, I will kill you. I will take the law into my own hands. ... Forget about the laws of men, forget about the laws of international order."

American University international law professor Diane Orentlicher says the ICC prosecutor reached back to the ultra-aggressive approach Duterte first deployed in Davao City to show that "there were the same kind of summary executions earlier in the Philippines." Orentlicher says it identifies "continuity of certain patterns" and the threat they pose "over almost a quarter of a century."

Obstacles ahead

While the finding of possible crimes against humanity is a significant step in the ICC's scrutiny, formidable hurdles remain before any prosecutor could formally name perpetrators or issue indictments.

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Firstly, President Duterte denies any wrongdoing, unambiguously vows not to cooperate in an international court investigation, and could stonewall the effort in his last year in office. And despite the bloodshed, and mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic , Duterte's " crude everyman " image still appeals to a majority of Filipinos.

Orentlicher says building a crimes against humanity case is complex, involving potentially thousands of victims "over time [and] over territory." While human rights activists would like to see Duterte in the dock, linking the alleged crimes to individual perpetrators is a massive evidentiary undertaking.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers a speech in Quezon City, Philippines, on June 25. Ace Morandante/Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP hide caption

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers a speech in Quezon City, Philippines, on June 25.

Powerful leaders facing scrutiny, she says, have been able to "interfere with witnesses, obstruct justice [and] intimidate people who would be key sources for the prosecutor." While the most senior officials are the ones the public expects the world court to take on, Orentlicher says they "are in the best position to keep a prosecutor from getting the evidence."

David Bosco, author of a book about the International Criminal Court titled Rough Justice, says it's also entirely possible the judges may not authorize an investigation. Bosco says it would not be because the Philippine case lacks merit, rather he says the plethora of allegations involving possible war crimes from Afghanistan to Nigeria to the Gaza Strip has the court overstretched.

"And even if the judges were to authorize an investigation, then you're talking about trying to launch an investigation when you have a hostile government," Bosco says. "So I think this is a very long road before we get to any perpetrator seeing the inside of a courtroom."

But Bosco adds prosecutors who have opened an ICC investigation have also been content to have the case lie dormant for long periods.

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"And then they revive," he says. "And so, we shouldn't ignore the possibility that there could be political changes in the Philippines that suddenly make a new government much more amenable to cooperating. So things could change."

Bosco says a potential investigation of the Philippines is also important because it raises the critical question: whether a state that has joined the ICC and then subsequently has come under scrutiny can "immunize itself by leaving the court." As the chief prosecutor persisted in examining the country's drug war, the Philippines withdrew as a member of the ICC.

Bosco believes the fact Bensouda sought authorization for her successor to open an investigation into the Philippines is "an important signal that the court is still going to pursue countries that have left the ICC once they've come under scrutiny."

Orentlicher says the court may look to the case of Burundi, the first country to leave the ICC. Prosecutors have continued to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed in the country before it withdrew in 2017.

Decades of drug wars

The focus on the Philippines comes at a time when countries around the world are questioning heavy-handed counternarcotics tactics. That includes the United States, whose war on drugs dates back to at least 1971 when President Richard Nixon called for an "all-out offensive" against drug abuse and addiction.

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"Over the last 50 years, we've unfortunately seen the 'War on Drugs' be used as an excuse to declare war on people of color, on poor Americans and so many other marginalized groups," New York Attorney General Letitia James said .

Likewise, the former ICC chief prosecutor Bensouda notes that the Philippines' drug fight has been called a "war on the poor" as the most affected group "has been poor, low-skilled residents of impoverished urban areas."

Drug addiction, especially crystal meth, known locally as shabu , grips the Philippines. Just this month, the national police said that security forces have been "seizing large volumes of shabu left and right," an acknowledgment that drugs remain rampant five years into the brutal drug war.

An aerial view shows Filipinos observing social distancing as they take part in a protest against President Duterte's anti-terrorism bill on June 12, 2020, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Critics says the legislation gives the state power to violate due process, privacy and other basic rights of Filipino citizens. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images hide caption

An aerial view shows Filipinos observing social distancing as they take part in a protest against President Duterte's anti-terrorism bill on June 12, 2020, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Critics says the legislation gives the state power to violate due process, privacy and other basic rights of Filipino citizens.

Calls are mounting for greater attention to drug prevention and public health for drug users. "Heavy suppression efforts marked by extra-judicial killings and street arrests were not going to slow down demand," Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told Reuters .

Edcel C. Lagman, a long-serving member of the Philippine Congress, recently wrote in the Manila Times that the ammunition needed in this war includes drug-abuse prevention education, skill training and "well-funded health interventions" to "reintegrate former drug dependent into society."

The Philippine National Police's narcotics chief himself, Col. Romeo Caramat, acknowledged that the violent approach to curbing illicit drugs has not been effective. "Shock and awe definitely did not work," he told Reuters in 2020.

A long, tough process

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Even if the ICC decides to open a formal investigation, Orentlicher says Duterte's defiance should not be underestimated. Journalists who have exposed the drug war have been jailed, and human rights advocates who have spoken out, including members of the clergy, have been threatened.

"This is going to be a very tough process," Orentlicher says, "not for the faint of heart at all."

Portraits of alleged victims of the Philippine war on drugs are displayed during a protest on July 22, 2019, in Manila. Richard James Mendoza/NurPhoto via Getty Images hide caption

Portraits of alleged victims of the Philippine war on drugs are displayed during a protest on July 22, 2019, in Manila.

Human rights attorney Colmenares maintains a cautious optimism that there will be a legal reckoning on behalf of the victims' families who want justice.

"It may be long and it may be arduous," Colmenares says, "but that's how struggles are fought and that's how struggles are won."

• international law
• Philippine drug war
• The Philippines
• rodrigo duterte
• International Criminal Court
• crimes against humanity
• Philippines
• Fatou Bensouda