Report says Philippines war on drugs is crime against humanity
Manila — Police prosecuting the war on drugs in the Philippines have behaved like the criminal underworld they are supposed to be suppressing, taking payments for killings and delivering bodies to funeral homes, according to a report released on Wednesday. The Amnesty International report said the wave of drugs-related killings since Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in mid-2016 appeared to be "systematic, planned and organised" by authorities and could constitute crimes against humanity. Responding to the findings, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella defended the Philippine National Police (PNP), saying no extra-judicial killings were state-sponsored and investigations by Senate committees had proved that. "There is no state-sponsored policy of extra-judicial deaths and there is relentless effort on the part of the PNP to carry out the campaign properly and within legal processes," he said. In a series of reports last year, Reuters showed that the police had a 9...
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