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.

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 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.”

The war on drugs is the policy of a global campaign, led by the United States
federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention,
with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.