ICC INVESTIGATION
Official data shows more than 6,000 people died in police anti-narcotics operations.
But rights groups estimate tens of thousands of mostly poor men have been killed by officers and vigilantes, even without proof they were linked to drugs.
Duterte had openly ordered police to shoot dead suspects during anti-drug operations if officers believed their lives were in danger.
While the crackdown has been widely condemned and sparked an international investigation, only five other policemen have been convicted for killing drug suspects.
Three Manila police officers were convicted in 2018 of murdering a 17-year old boy in 2017. Two other narcotics police officers were found guilty last year for separate killings in 2016 and 2017, the latter victim a South Korean businessman.
Lawyers say most families are too scared to go after their relatives’ killers or do not have the money or time to pursue a case in the Philippines’ creaky judicial system.
The Philippine drug crackdown is being investigated by the International Criminal Court, which said in 2021 that it appeared “a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy”.
Duterte pulled the Philippines out of the ICC in 2019, so only cases before that date are covered by the investigation.
President Ferdinand Marcos, who succeeded Duterte, has refused to cooperate in the ICC probe, saying Manila has a functioning judicial system.
