Who Were they?

Victims of drug-related killings in the Philippines should not be reduced to data and mere numbers. Addressing the drug problem in the country continued to be violent and these individual stories are proof of the continuing violence, impunity, and injustice. 

The main sources for each of these entries are the news articles published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on their online portal, inquirer.net. The details provided in each entry were all based on the articles published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Links on the full news articles are located at the bottom of each entry.

Begging on His Knees

Two men barged into the home of the Sorima’s before dawn looking for Edicer to ask him some questions. They took him outside and soon after, the family heard the sound of four gunshots. A witness to the killing described the horrific scene. Edicer was seen to have...

read more

Better Than to Starve

Alvin Ronald “Heart” De Chavez was a transgender woman, sibling of Analyn, and a child to Elena. In the Sunday preceding her death, Heart was arrested by the police after having her phone confiscated and finding text conversations about drug transactions. Elena told...

read more

A Welcoming Gift to the President

On July 1, 2016, 8:00 AM, less than 24 hours after Duterte’s inauguration, another life was taken by the police. And this time, according to the PNP Provincial Director of Negros, Harris Fama, it served as a “welcoming gift to the new president.”  Lito Belandres was a...

read more

Drugs and Media

Drug related killings in the Philippines has already been a problem. It only skyrocketed during the Duterte administration, but it was never absent in the previous administrations.  On Valentine’s Day of 2015, during President Benigno Aquino’s term, a 71-year old...

read more

Without Any Premonition

Emilian Gray Miranda, 36,  is a brother to a poet-activist for commuters’ rights, and an owner of a water refilling station in the City of San Pedro, Laguna. In the afternoon of January 9, 2017, Emilian’s mother, perhaps expecting just another normal day at home,...

read more

Fulfilling the Promise

In just four hours after his inauguration in June 30, 2016, the Duterte administration saw the first victim of its war against drugs. A high profile drug personality named Karlvin Chavez Licong, 27, was killed in an anti-drug operation in Tagbilaran City. He was said...

read more