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Six thousand six hundred. This is the official number of victims that would have been the "war on drugs" in the Philippines for three years. Figures that would be well below reality, according to NGOs and human rights defenders. President Rodrigo Duterte, who launched this repressive campaign in 2016, does not intend to put an end to it. He recently promised that the " next three years of his term will be the most dangerous for drug users and traffickers ". In a report published Monday, July 8, the NGO Amnesty International denounces the way this "war" is conducted, and puts forward a well-oiled strategy.
This strategy starts with targeting the poorest Filipinos, says Rachel Chhoa-Howard, who co-wrote Amnesty's report: " They are targeted simply because they can not afford to defend themselves. are easy targets. The police regularly publish statistics on the number of people killed in operations. This is to demonstrate that this so-called " war on drugs " is a success
Privileged targets of the police, these poor Filipinos paradoxically, according to the police, the means to possess a weapon. At each execution, the same explanations: coming to make an arrest, the police had to shoot, because the person was armed. In short, they systematically advocate self-defense.
A version challenged by Amnesty. " Our research has shown that the police version is not credible, " said Rachel Chhoa-Howard. Every time she is challenged by families who describe the same scenario : police officers who tear down the doors of houses in the middle of the night, shoot people just out of their sleep, who implore them to let their lives be saved. "
The police not only terrorize the population, but also the local authorities summoned to provide them with the names of potential consumer or drug traffickers. A refusal equates to a suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking.
► See also: Philippines: diving into President Duterte's war on drugs