Philipines extrajudicial killings

• Rodrigo Duterte was elected and promised to get rid of drug abuse within Philippines
• Initiated Philippines's "war on drugs" and gave police the right to "shoot to kill" on anyone suspected of drug abuse or resisted arrest
• August 2017 = killing of Kian delos Santos, gunshot wounds to the head and sparked outrage and protests
• 2017 = Senator Leila de Lima was detained - wanted to pursue an inquiry into the extrajudicial killings, used Philippines legislative processes but led to administration pressing charges claiming that she was trafficking drugs to prisoners
• Rappler - one of the few critical news outlets of Rodrigo Duterte - faced legal proceedings by the Philippines government in 2018 because of its critical reporting
• Human Rights - denies people to the right to be treated equally and fairly as policemen were above the law
• Cultural Relativism - many people approved of Duterte as they wanted to prioritise public safety instead of human rights
• After his term (2016-2022) Duterte was not reelected
• As of 2021 the war on drugs resulted in 12,000 deaths, 2,555 murders linked to police and 256,000 arrested
• The wave of social movement sparked by the murder of Kian delos Santos led to Duterte initiate an official government investigation and police officers were imprisoned
• The international community was unable to hold the government accountable due to the IGOs need for agreements and statutes for legitimacy and can't disrupt sovereignty
• In 2018 Rodrigo Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the international criminal court after it opened a crimes against humanity investigation into his brutal war on drugs
• Human Rights Watch reported that during the pandemic the Philippine National Police conducted raids without search warrants which violated the constitution