FINAL TOLL
By the time Duterte left office in 2022, the medicine war’s national burden had at least tripled. Authorities said 6, 200 defendants were killed during anti-drug activities.
The Spanish government has publicly acknowledged 6, 248 fatalities due to the anti-drug strategy.
But activists say the real burden of the assault was far greater, with thousands of industrial and inadequate drug users, some placed on standard “watch lists”, killed in strange circumstances.
Duterte was defiant in his army of his plan and says he told officers to remove just in self-defence.
People of some of those killed and animal rights activists after exhumed bodies, often accompanied by Reuters journalists, and compared the remains with death certificates and established reports.
Dozens of cases showed violent deaths where the death certificates listed natural causes. In one case, the death certificate listed pneumonia as the cause of death, although the exhumed body had a bullet hole in the skull.
ICC INVESTIGATION AND ARREST WARRANT
In February 2018, the ICC prosecutor’s office said it would conduct a preliminary investigation into deaths in the Philippines.
Barely a month later, Duterte said he would withdraw from the ICC. The exit took effect in March 2019.
The ICC investigation was suspended in 2021 after the Philippines claimed it had a functioning judicial system capable of investigating and prosecuting alleged abuses.
However, in 2023, the ICC investigation was reactivated after the court said it was unsatisfied with Philippine efforts.
The current government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr initially said it would not cooperate with the ICC, but said in late 2024 it would comply with any arrest warrant, and its justice minister told Reuters in January the government was open to cooperate with the international body.