Since taking office in 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a "war on drugs" campaign resulting in over 12,000 deaths, mostly of urban poor. At least 2,555 killings have been attributed to the Philippine National Police. Duterte and other officials have incited these killings, which could constitute crimes against humanity. Duterte made no secret that he would ruthlessly crack down on drugs as president, just as he did as mayor of Davao City for 22 years. The Catholic Church and international community have criticized the campaign, with the UN calling for an investigation of Duterte for murder.

1. Philippines’ ‘War on Drugs’
Elysse Bejar
HumSS 11-A

3. Since taking office on June 30, 2016, Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a “war
on drugs” that has led to the deaths of over
12,000 Filipinos to date, mostly urban poor.
At least 2,555 of the killings have been
attributed to the Philippine National Police.
Duterte and other senior officials have
instigated and incited the killings in a campaign
that could amount to crimes against humanity.

4. Large-scale extrajudicial violence as a crime solution was a
marker of Duterte’s 22-year tenure as Mayor of Davao city and
the cornerstone of his presidential campaign. On the eve of his
May 9, 2016 election victory, Duterte told a crowd of more
than 300,000: “If I make it to the presidential palace I
will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers,
holdup men, and do-nothings, you better get out
because I'll kill you.”
[Rappler]

6. Family members
grieve for Ronnie
Arroyo in
Quezon City on
Dec. 6. Arroyo,
36, was a drug
user killed in an
abandoned
house by police
who claimed he
fired first

7. The victim of a
summary
execution found
on a roadside in
the Navotas area
of Manila on
Nov. 30

8. Most inmates in
the overcrowded
jail of Las Piñas
are either
convicted or
accused of drug
offenses

9. Residents of
Payatas look
at the scene
of a killing on
Nov. 30

10. The coffins of
Domingo Mañosca
and son Francis, 5,
on Dec. 14. Both
were killed by shots
fired through the
plywood window of
their tiny Manila
home. Elisabeth
Navarro, nine
months pregnant,
survived with Erika,
1, and a second girl

11. Residents of
Payatas
look at the
scene of a
killing as a
police
forensic
team
investigates
on Dec. 1

12. The body
of Melanie
Abata
under a
bridge in
Caloocan
on Nov. 29

13. Aviel, the one-
year-old son of
Christian
Nufable, 34,
sleeps at his
father’s wake
on Nov. 26.
Nufable left
behind a wife,
Melanie, and
another son,
eight-year-old
Alex

14. A man
reaches to
the
women’s
cell to hold
his wife’s
hand at the
Malate jail
on Dec. 10

15. An
overcrowded
cell at the
Malate jail
on Dec. 10

16. Jocelyn De
La Cruz, the
pregnant
wife of a
victim, in
Navotas on
Nov. 28

17. The funeral
procession
for Alex
Hongco, 31,
in Pasig on
Dec. 4. He
left behind a
wife and six
children

18. The scene of
a killing
under a
bridge in
Manila on
Dec. 6

19. An
unidentified
victim in
the port
area of
Manila on
Nov. 26

20. A police
forensic
team
investigates
a crime
scene in
Navotas on
Nov. 30

21. Duterte made no secret that this would happen. “All of you
who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you,” he
said last April [2017], a month before he was elected. It wasn’t
just campaign bluster. For 22 years Duterte had served as
mayor of the southern city of Davao, where he took a
pathological approach to restoring order to the city’s streets.

22. How the Catholic Church is fighting the
drug war in the Philippines
“The image of a clergyman holding off the police at
the church gates was a powerful one for the
community. It was a significant act of resistance
amid growing opposition to the drug war. The
Catholic Church has slowly found its voice against a
campaign of violence that, in President Rodrigo Roa
Duterte, known as Rody, has one of the world’s most
ruthless and capricious leaders.”
-America Magazine

23. The reaction of the international community has been one of
outrage and reproach: Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Dec. 20 that Duterte
should be investigated for murder.

24. But it seems that President Duterte covers it
all up.

26. He told users and
drug-pushers: “If
you really destroy
my country,
I will kill you.”

27. Sources
• Time Magazine
• Rappler
• America Magazine