The human rights crisis in the Philippines unleashed since President

Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016 deepened in 2018 as Duterte

continued his murderous “war on drugs” in the face of mounting
international criticism.

In March, Duterte announced that the Philippines

would withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) “effective
immediately” in response to the ICC’s move in February to launch a
preliminary examination of “drug war” killings to determine whether
to open a full-blown investigation.

Duterte sought to silence his critics via various means. His most
prominent critic, Senator Leila de Lima, remained in detention on
politically motivated drug charges. In May, the Philippine Supreme
Court took unprecedented action to remove Chief Justice Maria
Lourdes Sereno, apparent reprisal for her criticism of Duterte’s “drug
war” and other abusive policies. In September, Duterte revoked the
amnesty given to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, another Duterte critic,
by the previous administration for leading mutinies in 2003 and 2007
when he was a naval officer; in October, a Manila court denied a
Department of Justice petition to issue a warrant for his arrest.

In November, in a rare triumph of accountability in the Philippines, a

Manila court found three police officers guilty for the murder of 17-
year-old Kian delos Santos in August 2017. The killing, which was
caught on surveillance camera, sparked outrage against the “drug
war.” In September, a court in Bulacan province convicted ex-army
Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and two other military men for the
kidnapping and illegal detention of Karen Empeño and Sherlyn
Cadapan, two student activists who were allegedly abducted, raped,
and tortured by military agents in 2006. The two women remain
missing.