Payments of 320 to 16,000 euros for each death and not a single cent for an arrest. The incentives paid to Philippine police help explain the rising corpse count during the drug war led by former president Rodrigo Duterte. Recent disclosures from a high ranking retiree shed light on that troubling detail: a readiness among suspects to open fire the moment they saw an officer who forced them to shoot in self defense.
Royina Garma, a longtime ally, testified in a parliamentary hearing, hoping to atone for past actions. She said that truth can free people and that she wants to help make the country safer for its children. She described the system devised by the former leader. It began with a 5 a.m. phone call in 2016, just after Duterte won the presidency. Garma was told to go to his home, where she heard his request: find a man from the national police or the Iglesia ni Cristo, a Christian group aligned with Duterte, who could replicate the method used in Davao, a southern city he had governed for two decades. The plan relied on a death squad that shot at anyone who appeared to be a criminal under a broad, lax standard.
That approach did not seem to harm Duterte’s political fortunes. He turned a crime-ridden city into one of the safest in the country and boosted his reputation enough to reach Manila. Duterte the Tough, the Punisher, the Enforcer — a provocative, stark image gained traction in a country tired of violent politics. In the election, he promised to fill Manila Bay with corpses, praised funeral homes as a future industry, and granted immunity to police who killed drug users. His strategy aimed to cleanse not only streets of drugs but also the very drug users themselves.
Garma described a model that included rewards for deaths, funding for special missions, and reimbursements for operating costs. When applied at the national level, the plan reportedly produced around 30,000 deaths, according to cautious estimates. The police contended that only those who resisted arrest were shot, while opponents and human rights groups argued that crimes against humanity and state-backed death squads were at work. The debate often boiled down to acronyms: DUI, for deaths under investigation, to some; EJK, for extrajudicial killings, to others. The controversy extended beyond killings to demand for accountability. Amnesty International published a report titled If You Are Poor, You Are Dead because the harshest penalties fell on impoverished communities.
Western governments and human rights organizations voiced criticism, yet Duterte maintained broad popular support. Polls frequently showed the approval rating hovering around eighty percent. People across Asia and Central America were sometimes willing to trade certain freedoms for a sense of security. Locals told this correspondent that they could walk the streets with a sense of calm they had not felt before.
That uneasy calm began to falter after the death of Kian Loyd Delos Santos. The 17-year-old helped his father in a small grocery and studied hard to become a police officer. Officials claimed it was self defense. Footage later showed officers placing a gun in his hand and ordering him to run before firing. Protests grew for weeks, spurring condemnation, yet the intense public mood gradually faded.
Soon after, the Duterte-Marcos alignment became evident. Duterte always denied links to death squads, though Garma’s statements contradicted him. It seems unlikely to derail his broader political horizon. Duterte responded to an investigation by the International Criminal Court by withdrawing the Philippines from the treaty. The current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., explained that the court undermined Philippine sovereignty. The Duterte and Marcos dynasties remained closely connected, with Duterte’s daughter serving in the government. Still, the families of the deceased pressed to share new evidence with the ICC and asked to speak with Garma so investigators could hear her account directly.
Despite the volatility, Duterte, now in his late seventies, continued to be a force in local politics and even hinted at another bid for the Davao mayoralty. Those who know his political playbook understand what to expect, and a sizable portion of voters remains receptive to his approach.