Manila Drug War

Rodrigo Duterte's Bloody War on Drugs

Across the Philippines, dead bodies have turned up in communities—men with heads wrapped in packaging tape, blood covered bodies discovered inside shanty homes and on sidewalks, children gunned down with their parents inside their bed rooms. A majority of the thousands who have died have been urban shanty dwellers, accused of pushing and using drugs. Rodrigo Duterte's bloody 'War on Drugs' has so far claimed thousands of lives since he took office in 2016 - and he promised that thousands more will suffer the same fate, in his desire to 'preserve the generation.'

A Filipino lawyer has filed a complaint to The Hague's International Criminal Court (ICC) charging Duterte, along with 11 other Filipino officials, of mass murder and crimes against humanity for the killings of thousands over the last three decades. Before being elected president he served as mayor of Davao City for more than 20 years, where he was known for his alleged 'Death Squads,' of men who killed suspected criminals in Davao. But despite the accusations for mass murder, the support for Rodrigo Duterte remains strong across the Philippines where he has earned the nickname 'The Punisher.' US President Donald Trump, in a leaked phone call, told Duterte, '"I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem."

They were brothers, sons, fathers. Duterte asks, 'Are they human?'

Rodrigo Duterte approached his first year in office last June.