sandatahang dahas

A running count of the reported incidents of state-related violence in the Philippines by the UP Diliman Third World Studies Center.

The Sandatahang Dahas (Armed Violence) Project is a monthly monitor by the UP Third World Studies Center on reported state-related violence. Specifically, this pertains to killings and injuries caused by and inflicted on gun-bearing members of law enforcement organizations or a public security agent in the Philippines.

WHAT IS STATE-RELATED VIOLENCE?

1. An active gun-bearing public security agent (PSA) or a member of any law enforcement organization in the Philippines, in pursuit or not of their assigned duty, has caused injury or death, or both, of another individual. That individual may be a civilian, an alleged insurgent, or a fellow PSA.

2. A civilian, an alleged insurgent, or a fellow PSA has caused injury or death, or both, on a gun-bearing public security agent or a member of any law enforcement organization in the Philippines, whether said agent is on-duty or not.

COMMON CIRCUMSTANCES

1. Forces Operations

Planned operations such as buy-bust and anti-insurgency. This also includes incidents wherein a PSA witnessed an act of crime and proceeded to intervene.

2. Checkpoint Incidents

Wherein a routine checkpoint (ex. COMELEC checkpoint) leads to an incident which results in a PSA inflicting harm or being harmed by a non-PSA.

3. Attacks Against PSAs

Wherein a PSA has died or sustained injuries outside of their official duties.

4. Alleged Suicides Within PSA Custody

Injury or death of a civilian, an alleged insurgent, or a fellow PSA while within the premises of a police precinct, a military camp or detachment, or a penal facility and in custody of a gun-bearing PSA or a member of any law enforcement organization in the Philippines

5. Others

All other incidents of injurious or lethal violence inflicted by PSAs.

the need for sandatahang dahas

Human rights organizations in the Philippines have long monitored and tallied the killings and injuries committed mainly by the military and to a lesser degree, the police. Such data should supposedly be available through public government channels, but it has been withheld by the executive branch since 2016 in the guise of observing the decree on the Freedom of Information.

Sandatahang Dahas is envisioned to become a fuller public count that includes members of law enforcement organizations who are then subject to the same violence–injurious, lethal, or both–that they are capable of.

Data from the Sandatahang Dahas Project speaks to the broader culture of violence perpetrated by and inflicted upon the state. In tandem with the Dahas Project, we aim to debunk the propaganda of a “bloodless” drug war as this consequently leads to the number of law enforcement agents injured or killed in pursuit of said war to be swept under the rug.

The Sandatahang Dahas Project is an effort by the UP Third World Studies Center to continue its work on lethal force monitoring which started with a partnership between the University of Exeter and ten other organizations in 2023, funded by the Open Society Foundations. The researchers of the Center, led by Joel F. Ariate Jr., wrote the 2022 report for the Philippines for the 13-country study on the use and abuse of lethal force by public security agents.

As the Center gathers data for its monthly monitoring for 2025, it will also be gathering data for incidents that happened in 2023–24. The intent is to gather data on state-related violence from 2022 (or even before) until the present and for said data be ready both for year-on-year comparison to demonstrate national trends as well as for future multi-country studies in collaboration with other institutions that are also working on monitoring lethal force. The points for comparison are drawn from the lethal force indicators of the Monitoring Lethal Force group.

how is data gathered?

The Sandatahang Dahas Project relies on online research of media reports of state-related violence. Official statements of the military, the police, or any other law enforcement organization in the Philippines regarding injury or death, or both, in their rank or those caused by them, are considered legitimate sources of information for the Sandatahang Dahas Project as long as they are corroborated by at least one media source. Each incident must at least be the subject of two media reports or a media report and an official statement from the concerned law enforcement organization.