Nearly 1,800 killed in Philippine drug war

MANILA, Philippines — Killings by the police and vigilantes in the Philippines’ war on drugs have soared to nearly 1,800 in the seven weeks since President Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office, the nation’s top police official told a Senate hearing on Monday.

Under Duterte, who campaigned on a pledge to rid the country of drug dealers, 712 suspects have been killed in police operations, National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa said. Vigilante killings have totaled 1,067 during the same period, he said, although it was unclear how many were directly related to the illegal drug trade.

The numbers represent a huge increase over those cited by the police last week, when they put the total at more than 800 since Duterte’s election on May 9.

Duterte is said to have incited the wave of killings with his vow to eradicate crime. He has said the police should “shoot to kill” when they encounter members of organized crime.

Human rights advocates have been horrified by the killings, but Duterte’s popularity has soared among a large segment of Filipinos

The senators heard from Harra Kazuo, whose husband, Jaypee Bertes, and his father, Renato Bertes, were killed by the officers inside the Pasay City police station after they were arrested.

She told the committee that the police had been extorting money from her husband, a small-time drug peddler.

Kazuo said that the police had beaten her husband and threatened to shoot him if he did not hand over his drugs, but that he had nothing to give them. Renato Bertes arrived in the middle of the commotion, and the police beat him for insisting they show him a warrant, she said.

Kazuo said she had visited them at the station before their deaths and had seen that her husband was in poor condition.

“He was leaning on the bars and had a hard time standing,” she said. “He had a difficult time speaking. That was the last time I saw them alive.”