The war on drugs in the Philippines is leaving hundreds dead in

the streets.On June 5, 2016, a month after he was elected,

Duterte stood in front of national television, outlining his plan
for cracking down on drug addicts.Feel free to call us, the
police, or do it yourself if you have a gun, he said. You have
my support.Fatal force, Duterte told the crowd, was a
reasonable response to drug addicts. If he fights and he fights
to death, you can kill him.Barilin mo [shoot him] and Ill give
you a medal, he told a cheering crowd. Shoot a lot and I will
make you police chief, he joked.The statement garnered
international attention and condemnation from human rights
groups. Critics took this as an incitement to violence.
Apparently vigilantes did as well.For the vigilante who singled
out Manalang, theres one fewer alleged drug dealer on the
street. The police mark the bullet casings scattered around him,
photograph the crime scene, empty his pockets for evidence,
set aside the blood-splattered cardboard sign, wrap his body in
a blue tarp, and load him into a waiting ambulance.Someone
lights a candle next to the thick puddle of Manalangs blood on
the asphalt, and one of his friends, starts up his motorcycle
sidecar, still splattered with blood and drives it away.The
Philippine Daily Inquirer, a leading local newspaper is compiling
a Kill List of drug-related deaths since Duterte took office.
Using reports from their correspondents across the Philippines,
The Inquirer has so far counted more than 600 killings since
Duterte became president either by police in drug bust
operations or by vigilantes that theyve been able to
attribute the drug war.The number already represents a
significant spike in violent deaths in the Philippines. However,
Sara Pacia, one of the reporters behind the Kill List, says the
real number is much, much higher.According to The Inquirers
numbers, which are updated twice a week with fresh reports,
theres now an average of 14 drug-related deaths a day in the
Philippines and on particularly bloody nights, it can add up to
more than 20. Less conservative estimates by other sources put
the number of drug-related deaths as high as a thousand.

Philippines War on Drugs

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 7,000 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.Human Rights Watch
research has found that police are falsifying evidence to justify
the unlawful killings. Despite growing calls for an investigation,
Duterte has vowed to continue the campaign.Large-scale
extrajudicial violence as a crime solution was a marker of
Dutertes 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.

The Philippines War on Drugs Is Really a War on the Poor

Less than 50 days into the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte in the
Philippines, serious concerns are being raised over the
hundreds of extrajudicial killings being perpetrated under the
administrations watch. Some have characterized the situation
as a reign of terror, while Duterte himself has declared: I dont
care about human rights. While purportedly a war against
drug dealers and users, the killings not only forgo the rule of
law, but entrench disadvantage among the countrys poor.

Dutertes inaugural State of the Nation Address reiterated the

tough-on-crime rhetoric that propelled him to electoral victory.
To many observers, the speech was in keeping with the
presidents often meandering and contradictory public
statements. Duterte said his administration will ensure that the
rule of law will always prevail, but also threatened to put
drug offenders below the ground. The address was best
understood as a continuation of Dutertes simplistic notion that
fighting crime means killing perpetrators.

As early as 2009, Human Rights Watch documented the

activities of vigilantes dubbed the Davao Death Squad, who
murdered suspects with the complicity of local officials and
police in the city in which Duterte served as mayor. These
killings were often perpetrated in broad daylight and the
victims were mostly petty criminals, gang members, and street
children.

Fast forward to 2016 and the images of summary executions

are again being cast against a backdrop of poverty, with the
victims of Dutertes latest sanctioned killings once more coming
from the fringes of society. The key factor that has changed is
that the so-called Operation Tokhang (knock and plead) is
now being conducted on a nationwide scale.

The operation sees police officers visit suspects whose names

have been drawn from lists of drug suspects provided by
barangay, or village, officials. These individuals are compelled
to report to their nearby police station, confess their alleged
crimes, and sign declarations pledging to mend their ways.
These surrender ceremonies are conducted with much
fanfare and media coverage, with participants labeled as
offenders regardless of criminal liability actually being proven.

Duterte has simultaneously sanctioned the killing of suspects

who do not participate in these processes, with the violence
carried out by police and vigilante groups comprising active and
retired officers, former communist guerrillas, and even guns-
for-hire. These killings have become known as cardboard
justice, owing to suspects bodies being dumped alongside
signs scrawled with their alleged crimes. In some cases,
individuals had attended a surrender ceremony, yet were still
killed.

Affluent areaswhose residents typically consume drugs such

as ecstasy and cocaine rather than the poor mans shabu, or
crystal methamphetamineare largely spared from the
surrender ceremonies and the killings. Gated communities in
Manila, for example, can provide certification from
homeowners associations that they are drug-free, which is
enough to dissuade police officers from pursuing Tokhang
activities. Rather than encouraging vigilante justice against
them, Duterte has also granted personal audiences to drug
trade figures of higher stature.
The fact that members of the middle and upper classes dont
suffer the consequences of the war on drugs has been key to
these individuals considering the campaign as adequately
restrained and lending it their political support. Unaffected
overseas Filipino workers have also overwhelmingly backed
Duterte and his positions, and have promoted a narrative that
only the tough and patriarchal leader can transform the
Philippines into a prosperous country similar to their host
countries.
The Tokhang campaign ultimately suffers from assuming that
local officials are trustworthy and that the information they
provide is accurate. In fact, officials have themselves often
been indicted for drug offenses, and the system in turn gives
many the discretion to exact retribution on political enemies.
The Philippines National Police Chief has admitted there is not
enough evidence for most of the suspects called out by
Duterte, and there have been many reported cases of identified
names belonging to dead or even non-existent people.
Even assuming accurate information could be provided, there is
a considerable risk of collateral damage from permitting lethal
force against drug offenders. Police shootouts have suffered
from mistaken identification of victims and have also resulted
in the deaths of bystanders.
Though state-sanctioned, the Tokhang operation and the
associated killings clearly contravene Article III of the
Philippines Bill of Rights, which provides for the presumption
of innocence until proven guilty. While supporters of the
violence may claim short-term gains, it is eroding trust between
communitiesparticularly poorer onesand authorities. At
worst, it may embolden genuine criminal entities to escalate
their own violence against ordinary citizens and security
services alike.
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Olayres insists that he was just a pedicab driver and had no ties
to the drug trade.
Duterte showed little sympathy for the grieving woman, or
indeed the murdered man, in the photo. Responding to it after
it had made its way to the front page of several Philippine
newspapers last week, he instead used it as a warning.
"If you don't want to die and get hurt, don't pin your hopes on
priests and human rights (groups). They can't stop death,"
Duterte, the straight-talking former mayor of Davao, a restive
southern Philippines town, said last week, referring to the
image.
"Then you end up sprawled on the ground and you are
portrayed in a broadsheet like Mother Mary cradling the dead
cadaver of Jesus Christ. Well, that's very dramatic."
He's doubling down on the policy, despite criticisms that his
apparent support for extrajudicial killings is leading the country
down a dangerous, lawless path.

"Double your efforts. Triple them, if need be. We will not stop
until the last drug lord, the last financier, and the last pusher
have surrendered or put behind bars -- or below the ground, if
they so wish," he said in his July 25 State of the Nation speech.
On Wednesday, he added in a speech that the reason he won
by a "landslide" was the "sense of security" that he offers.
He said that the impact of drugs in the community made him
"really angry. I've always been angry, even as mayor."
Adding that "it's a war, not a crisis," he asked, "why should
these people live?"
Despite the bullish tone, a government spokesman insists that
the Duterte administration is against any form of extrajudicial
killings.
"We do not condone these acts," Presidential Communications
Office (PCO) Secretary Martin Andanar said.
"(The) government is here to save our people from the drug
menace and punish the offenders, including the big-time ones.
The PNP (Philippines National Police) continues to investigate
situations involving vigilante killings and operational aspects
where deaths are reported."

Gunned down and left to die in the street: A year after the
Philippines began its war on drugs which has claimed 5,000
lives, how one woman's senseless murder still has the power to
shock the country
Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Philippines a year
ago, promising a crackdown on drugs
He has instructed police to shoot dealers on sight, and
encourage vigilantes to kill users living among them
Since then more than 5,000 people have died in drug-related
killings, though 8,000 more are unexplained
One unexplained killing is that of Kristita Padual, 29, who was
shot dead as she sat outside a nightclub
WARNING: Graphic content
By Chris Pleasance for MailOn
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
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