Rodrigo Duterte's 'Death Squads' Fought in the Philippines' War on Drugs. Now He Might Get Life in Prison.
As many as 30,000 people may have died at the hands of the state-sponsored death squads.
"Her dream was to go to school," Lydjay Acopio says of her daughter Myca, speaking in her native Tagalog. "When my eldest son was in first grade, she helped him put on his uniform. But she never got a cha...
The strongest version of this narrative presents Duterte’s war on drugs as a state-sanctioned campaign of extrajudicial violence, systematically incentivizing police brutality and vigilante killings. The article effectively documents the human cost—such as the death of Myca Acopio—and the institutional mechanisms that enabled it, including bonuses for killings and public endorsements of violence. It also highlights the ICC’s role in holding Duterte accountable, framing this as a pivotal moment f...