Families and relatives of victims who died during the Duterte administration’s drug campaign protested right in front of the Senate Gate in Pasay City on Monday, where former President Rodrigo Duterte appeared prior to a Senate committee for a hearing on his drug war.
Duterte claimed “full responsibility” regarding the brutal anti-drug campaign, but rejected that killing was policy. Duterte stated that he’d “always viewed people addicted to illegal drugs as victims and patients requiring medical help and not as criminals.”
Advocates for human rights in the Philippines and globally have reported violations in Duterte’s drug war, claiming that police officers have been murdered with impunity.