The wave of police killings triggered by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's murderous anti-drugs campaign continues to rage on, destroying lives and devastating communities, a report by Amnesty International reveals today. The UN must immediately open an investigation into gross human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity committed as part of the "war on drugs." 

The new report, 'They just kill': Ongoing extrajudicial executions and other violations in the Philippines' 'war on drugs,' shows police operating with total impunity as they murder people from poor neighbourhoods whose names appear on manufactured "drug watch lists" established outside of any legal process. 

"Three years on, President Duterte's 'war on drugs' continues to be nothing but a large-scale murdering enterprise for which the poor continue to pay the highest price," said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East and Southeast Asia. 

"It is time for the United Nations, starting with its Human Rights Council, to act decisively to hold President Duterte and his government accountable." 

The Philippine government has acknowledged at least 6,600 killings at the hands of police. Evidence points to many thousands more killed by unknown armed persons with likely links to the police. 

Following the transfer of senior police officers from Metro Manila -- until then the country's epicentre of killings -- Bulacan province, in Central Luzon, is now the country's bloodiest killing field. 

President Duterte has repeatedly defended his administration's "war on drugs," saying people involved in drugs are "criminals" and that their killing is "justifiable." 

In its investigation, Amnesty International identified 20 cases in which 27 people were killed, many of which appear to be extrajudicial executions. These killings took place across Bulacan province between May 2018 and April 2019. In total, the organisation carried out interviews with 58 people, including witnesses of extrajudicial executions, families of victims, local officials and human rights activists, among others. 

The report builds on a previous Amnesty International investigation, whose results were published in January 2017, that showed how the police had systematically targeted mostly poor and defenceless people across the country while planting "evidence," recruiting paid killers, stealing from the people they kill, and fabricating official incident reports. 

"It is not safe to be poor in President Duterte's Philippines," said Nicholas Bequelin. "All it takes to be murdered is an unproven accusation that someone uses, buys, or sells drugs. Everywhere we went to investigate drug-related killings ordinary people were terrified. Fear has now spread deep into the social fabric of society."