The Killing Squads: Inside the Philippines’ ‘War on Drugs’

What do the police claim is happening?

Police often claim that a drug suspect opened fire on them and was then killed in a shootout. But we found instead that people are being executed and framed by the police, who plant guns and drugs on the bodies. The gunmen wear masks and try to make sure there are no witnesses, but we met some people who saw the shooting and planting of evidence. This is an organized, government-sanctioned campaign of executions of drug suspects.

Duterte only took office nine months ago. Was there any clue he would endorse such violent policies?

His “tough on crime” image dates back to his two decades as mayor of Davao City in Mindanao, when he was a cheerleader for killing petty criminals, small-time drug dealers, and street children by the “Davao Death Squad.” Our research then linked the death squad to local government officials and the police. When he ran for president last year, he promised a nationwide anti-drug campaign, warning voters that “tens of thousands of people” would be killed and vowing to “make the fish in Manila Bay grow fat on the victims.” He even said he would match Hitler by killing millions.

 

Is the Philippines’ drug problem as bad as Duterte claims?

Duterte insists the Philippines is in the grip of a severe drug crisis, but the evidence doesn’t support that. The most common drug in the country, especially among the poor, is methamphetamine, which is known locally as shabu. Meth use is roughly equivalent to that in the United States. But Duterte has created this myth of a country descending into a lethal drug crisis and has advocated mass extrajudicial violence against “drug lords” as the only solution to this false crisis. Yet the vast majority of those killed are very poor urban slum dwellers.

If the drug problem is exaggerated, why are so many people being killed?

Duterte’s populist base applauds the mass killings as reducing crime. He tries to scare people about drug problems and then portrays himself as the only solution. Like many populists, he’s built this myth around himself as a champion of the poor, but actually he comes from a very powerful political dynasty. Many Filipinos we met told us they had no idea innocent people were being killed in the anti-drug campaign until their own relative got killed. The mother of one victim told me: “We voted for Duterte, and now he’s declaring war on us – he’s killing us like chickens.”

 

Many of the 32 victims whose killings we investigated for our report were occasional methamphetamine users, as it gives them energy to be able to work long hours. And a few sold drugs to make ends meet. But women and children have been victims, too.

How do you know police are planting evidence?

In almost all the cases we investigated, the family members talked to us freely about the victims – the bad as well as the good. But they were adamant the victim didn’t have a gun so couldn’t have been armed. We’re talking about people so poor they can’t even afford decent meals, let alone buy a gun. In several instances we got eyewitness accounts about police planting evidence.

I imagine the city morgues are overflowing?

We went to one morgue and they had about 40 bodies in the refrigerator. Many Filipinos are very religious and the proper burial of their relatives is of great importance. But a proper funeral costs about US$1,000, in a country where many people live on $2 a day. So many victims eventually are buried in mass graves.

We met one woman who had just managed to get together money for a funeral after one son was killed. Then her second son was picked up by police. She was told to pay a bribe to get him out, but she had no money left. That night her son was found floating in a local river, shot to death.