The War On Drugs in the Philippines

"We have bones that could speak."

"In Tagalog, we call it bones of truth because the bones cannot lie."

Reverend Flaviano Villaneuva, Catholic priest

 

"This looks like an entry [bullet hole in skull during forensic examination]. So an apparent gunshot wound to the head for this one." 

"That's how you get away with murder. And here I am in my ivory tower, saying]; no though, you're wrong. You've missed this, you've missed that [in police investigating their own]. How do you think they feel about me? They [police authorities] hate me."

"Am I at risk? Should I consider moving elsewhere? There's a certain effect on your psyche. You're not safe. Knowing that in the Philippines, assassins can simply come near you, start shooting and get away with it."

"When I'm there in the room [her office at the University of Philippines College of Medicine] with all of these skeletons, I feel that I'm giving them what was denied to them before."

"They were not given a proper investigation, no proper examination."

"What happens to the unnamed, unclaimed bodies? Where are they?"

Dr. Raquel Fortun, forensic pathologist, chair, pathology department, University of Philippines College of Medicine

Forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun discusses findings on drug war deaths beside Catholic priest Flavie Villanueva, who counsels drug war victims, during a news conference in Manila, Philippines, April 12, 2022. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

 

When Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte ran for election in 2016, one of the promises he made was a commitment to clean up drugs in the Philippines. This made the former mayor of a troubled Davao city which voters viewed as a testing ground of the candidate's ability to clean up corruption, rampant crime and the overwhelming availability of drugs creating a society of drug addicts vote with great enthusiasm for the man. And even though he gave police a clear mandate to clean up the drug trade urging them to use all means possible, his popularity did not wane.

News stories circulating in the country and abroad about the brutality of police tactics and the extrajudicial killings that took place targeting young men in poor neighbourhoods with claims that they were drug dealers were refuted by their grieving families who insisted they were victims of the drug trade, and not among those who led the drug trade making money out of the destitute for whom poverty was a fact of life and who sought comfort in drugs.

There were public executions the police defended with claims that the victims were resisting arrest or threatening police and their subsequent deaths resulted from their own ill-doing. With a new administrative government in a return of an earlier president whose dynastic family tradition of governing the island and who had proved incapable of doing so wisely and well and whose reputation for corruption led to the election of Duterte as a feasible alternative, it's anyone's guess whether things can improve.

Dr. Fortun, 62, is dedicated to her job, as one of few forensic pathologists in the country. She accuses the police and medical authorities of covering up state-sanctioned murder that took place under the Duterte government. She works alone, piecing together evidence of murder relating to the former government's drug war. For the past year she has been examining bones, working for the Reverend Flaviano Villanueva, linked to the families of the victims.

Of the 46 skeletal remains she has examined to date , seven cases were revealed where the death certificates indicated the cause of death to be of natural origins, while her investigation demonstrated clearly that these were in fact homicides. Disclosed at a news conference in April, the findings pointed a finger of suspicion at medical authorities who appeared to be complicit in a cover-up of official criminal malfeasance. As well, the full extent of the drug war was revealed to potentially be many times greater than what has been disclosed by the government.

The estimated number of people killed, considered since 2015 to be 30,000 is higher by far than the official figure. According to the Philippine National Police that number is just over 6,200. The murders and casualties of the drug war had seen no independent inquiry. Since Dr. Fortun's revelations, the International Criminal Court announced its intention to open an investigation. The Duterte administration responded by warning of its intention to block investigators from entering the Philippines.

Forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun discusses findings on drug war deaths during a news conference in Manila, Philippines, April 12, 2022. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez