Abstract

In the Philippines, the deaths from President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs keep mounting. Most of these have been in the poorest communities among those labeled by the police as “drug personalities,” that is, suspected dealers and users—Duterte makes no distinction between the two. The killings, carried out by the police in league with vigilantes unfold like clockwork. Success is measured by the body count, and there is no end in sight to the nightly executions. What is perhaps most troubling is that amid these extrajudicial killings, Duterte remains wildly popular. Among those living in poor communities who are most directly affected by the murders, anecdotal evidence from journalists covering the killings suggests that anger is growing among the families of the victims. But they are as yet unable to translate their grief into organized resistance.

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