At least 80 people have been killed in just three days as the Philippines latest bloody crackdown on drugs shows no sign of abating.
Thirteen people were shot dead in the capital Manila overnight on Thursday after 67 people were killed and more than 200 arrested in the city earlier in the week.
The wave of killings comes after President Rodrigo Duterte said he wanted to see dozens of bodies per day to ‘reduce what ails this country’.
At least 80 people have died in just 72 hours in the Philippines as the latest escalation in the country’s bloody war on drugs shows no sign of slowing down
Thirteen suspected drug dealers were killed in Manila overnight on Thursday in police sting operations as officers say all those who were shot fought back
But critics of hardline President Rodrigo Duterte say they are ‘outraged’ at the latest round of deaths and have called for protests against him
The wave of bloodletting comes after Duterte praised police for shooting 32 people dead on Wednesday, saying he wanted to see dozens more being killed each day
Police have been given licence to shoot drug suspects on sight, while Duterte has also given a free pass to vigilantes who murder suspected dealers
While police chiefs have hailed the move, Duterte was criticised by his own Vice President and international observers who say he is perpetrating crimes against humanity.
Vice President Leni Robredo, who belongs to a party opposed to Duterte, called the killings ‘something to be outraged about.’
She has been a constant critic of the crackdown that has killed thousands of Filipinos and caused international alarm since Duterte took office.
Duterte has made it his mission to eradicate drug use in a country where it is estimated less than 1 in 50 people use illegal substances every year. The global average is 1 in 20, according to the 2016 World Drug Report.
A team of Reuters journalists went to five communities in Manila on Thursday night, where four men died in shootouts with undercover police in drug ‘buy-bust’ or sting operations.
Police prevented the journalists from getting near the scene in the northwestern neighbourhood of Caloocan but they saw three body bags being taken from a maze of narrow alleys.
Since Duterte took office a year ago thousands of people have been killed in his war on drugs, despite the rate of drug use in the Philippines being less than half the global average
The majority of the killings have taken place in the capital Manila (pictured, two bodies lay in the streets on Thursday morning) where 200 people have also been arrested
Despite international condemnation and criticism from Duterte’s own deputy, polls show a majority of Filipino’s support his crackdown (pictured, a body on the streets of Manila)
Police deny the latest crackdown came at the direction of President Duterte, though he has encouraged the killings (pictured, a body on the streets of Manila on Thursday morning)
Elsewhere in Caloocan, they saw the corpse of a man slumped on an iron fence at the back of a mini-bus terminal.
Another man was killed near the Manila post office building, four died in hospitals in the northern area of Malabon and another died on the spot near a former garbage dump in the sprawling Quezon City district.
Three others were killed elsewhere on Thursday night, according to a radio report, including a man who was shot by masked men on a motorcycle in the eastern area of Marikina City.
While most of the killings are perpetrated by police, Duterte has offered vigilantes a legal pass if they decide to take matters into their own hands.
Police say there has been no instruction from higher authorities to step up their anti-drug operations and they are only doing their job.
Duterte has called for a ‘one-time, big-time’ crackdown on drug dealers, as he aims to eradicate illicit substance use by the time his presidential term ends
A funeral home worker rests on the bonnet of his truck in Manila. Morgue employees have been working overtime since the police crackdown started earlier this week
A man weeps after discovering that his relative, an alleged drug dealer, has been shot dead by police during the police crackdown in the Philippines
A distraught woman collapses to the floor in grief after seeing the body of a relative who was shot dead by police after being accused of dealing drugs
‘The president did not instruct me to kill and kill,’ national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said on Thursday. ‘I also don’t have any instructions to my men to kill and kill.
‘But the instruction coming from the president is very clear that our war on drugs is unrelenting. Those who were killed fought back.’
Duterte indicated this week that the escalation had his blessing, saying it was good that 32 criminals had been killed in a province north of Manila and adding: ‘Let’s kill another 32 every day.’
On Thursday, he said he would not just pardon police officers who killed drug offenders during the anti-narcotics campaign, but also promote them.
Critics maintain that members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) are executing suspects and say it is likely they have a hand in thousands of unsolved murders of drug users by mysterious vigilantes. The PNP and government reject that.
Although the violence has been criticised by much of the international community, Filipinos largely support the campaign.