Deadliest Place to Deal

This programme contains some strong language

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find disturbing

We've had a tip that there's been a killing, so we're heading to the scene now.

OK, so all the journalists are running over this way,

so we'll follow them.

The body is just in front of the car there. It's very close.

His hands are tied behind his back.

They've got the...crime-scene people are working the scene already.

'I've come to the Philippines in Southeast Asia to investigate

'the world's bloodiest war on drugs.

'I've joined a night shift with some local journalists

'in the capital, Manila.'

How many bodies like this do you see on a typical night?

-Our minimum for a night is ten.

-Ten a night?

-Ten a night.

-So our largest number is 22, all around Metro Manila.

-22?

-Yeah.

All around Metro Manila.

His wallet's been completely emptied.

Inside was a note that said,

"Sorry, I destroyed my life because of drugs.

"Sorry, I am a pusher." And he's got a single shot to his head.

'We receive a tip-off about another killing

'and rush with the press pack to get to the scene.

'But before we reach there, news comes in of another execution.

'And then another.'

It's madness. The journalists just can't cope with the numbers.

They're zigzagging all across the city trying to find these killings.

I'm told we're up to killing number four now

and no-one's even had time to cover two or three.

'This time it's a homeless drug user who's been shot dead.'

As you can see, it's a really busy street.

We've tried talking to some of the people on the street

and nobody is willing to talk on camera,

there's a real feeling of fear about these killings.

'In the past eight months,

'over 7,000 people have been killed in the Philippines.'

'Patricia is an investigative journalist

'who has been covering the wave of violence.'

Pat, can you tell me a bit about what's been going on

over the last few months?

President Rodrigo Duterte was elected as president.

He ran on a platform against crime,

against drugs and against corruption.

He promised that, within six months, all of that would be gone.

He also promised it would be bloody. And it has been.

Is this normal to the Philippines? Have you seen this before?

Sure, we have crime. Er, but not every night, not in these numbers.

We don't expect our politicians to keep their promises.

This is one time that a promise was kept.

HE MAKES GRUESOME NOISE

CROWD ROARS

'Rodrigo Duterte swept to power in the Philippines last June,

'after vowing to kill anyone involved in drugs.'

'He campaigned as the hard-man mayor who cleaned up his city of crime,

'earning the nickname Duterte Harry.'

Duterte! Duterte!

'Duterte's brash, bold and blunt, driving crowds wild like

'no politician before him.

'He won the election in a landslide.'

'The wave of executions began as soon as Duterte took office.

'A local newspaper keeps a list of people killed.'

What is...is shocking to see is that, actually,

so many of these were on the police drug watchlist,

so these are all people that are known to police.

The majority in front of me are killed by unknown hitmen,

or killed in police operations,

and there's absolutely thousands of them.

You can just keep scrolling -

just name after name after name,

killed, killed, killed,

all for this war on drugs.

'According to police statistics, a staggering 2,500 drug pushers

'have been killed during police operations.

'I want to see first-hand how the police work,

'so I join them on one of their drug busts.'

So, apparently, someone from the market put in a phone call and said,

"We're sick of the drug users around here. Can you come and have a look?"

And so that's why this operation's happening.

'The team split into groups and spreads out.

'The police are looking for shabu, the local name for crystal meth,

'a wildly popular drug here.'

HE KNOCKS AT DOOR

'They tear the home of one suspect upside down

'and find evidence of drug use in the hallway.'

So, the scales are for weighing drugs?

So, distributing drugs?

And...and the pipe?

'Another arrest is made -

'undercover operatives catch a man in the act of selling shabu.

'They call these kind of operations "buy-bust".'

Are buy-busts very dangerous?

'In the flat upstairs,

'an informant identifies one tenant as a drug pusher,

'and I get a taste of the police's hardline approach.'

OK.

So, for the police, this has been a very successful day.

This suspect, who's in handcuffs now, is their 15th arrest.

'At the station, those arrested are tested for drugs.'

-Is it negative?

-Positive.

Positive? Have they all been positive?

'Those who test positive are added to the drugs watchlist,

'a long list of everyone believed to use or sell drugs.'

So, this was the male holding cell,

and you've got all the recent arrests in here.

How many of you are in here for drugs charges?

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

'The police allow us to film the whole mission,

'and I don't witness any killings or violence...

'..but, back out on the streets, it's not long before I run into

'the aftermath of another police operation.'

OK, so we've found the crime scene,

and I think it's under this bridge here.

'There are multiple dead bodies, riddled with bullets.'

The police have gone undercover and posed as buyers.

Quite often, the suspects end up dead -

like, at this one, you've got three dead bodies.

'I speak to the police officer in charge.'

What went wrong? What happened?

My policemen retaliated, because the suspects shoot back...

shoot at the police officers,

sensing that they are, already, police officers.

All three of them shot back?

Three of them.

All of them had guns?

Yes.

'The police almost always say that they have acted in self-defence

'against drug dealers, but I want to investigate claims

'that many of those killed have been set up by the police.'

This is the mother of a victim,

and she's going to tell me what happened to her son.

This is where...the place where my son was killed...

He was lying here,

-then the policeman came in.

-Mm-hm?

He blocked the door, then killed my son.

'Christina says she wasn't here when her son was killed,

'but neighbours told her what happened.

'The police claim it was Henry who fired first

'when they came to arrest him.'

I said, "This is not true.

"He has no gun.

"He has no gun."

They just placed it on his hand, I thought.

I think that's what they did.

So they did find a gun here, but you think they placed it here?

Yeah. They placed it on his hand.

Why would they do that, though?

So that they have a reason to kill my son.

Did the neighbours hear anything?

IN OWN LANGUAGE:

That's terrible.

I'm sorry I'm making you go over this.

Oh, dear.

Oh, Christina, let me give you a cuddle.

Oh...

I'm so sorry.

Henry's mum even admitted to me that,

yes, he is guilty to a certain extent -

he is involved in drugs -

but, still, that doesn't justify him being killed,

and yet this is just one case,

and there are thousands of these in this country.

It just... It's not right.

ENGINE PURRS

Hello.

'I want to know why dealers continue to sell

'in a terrifying climate like this.

'Most are too frightened to talk,

'but we managed to track down someone who agrees.'

GUN CLICKS

I'm on my way to meet with a drug dealer,

so I'm about to meet the person who's doing

the most dangerous job in all of Manila.

Do you think the authorities know that you are a drug pusher?

IN OWN LANGUAGE:

'The dealer shows me her merchandise.

'She sells each of these packets of shabu for just £4.'

Just for having - cos, to me, this looks like a small amount -

for that, could you be killed?

How do you still manage to sell drugs in this environment?

'She tells me the authorities have already searched her home

'but didn't find her stash, luckily for her.'

Never in my whole career have I met with a drug dealer who was

so on edge and terrified for their life.

And her eyes were moving around.

Any noise she heard she was on alert, she was listening,

and I can completely understand why.

When the killings started, drug users and pushers were given

an ultimatum by the authorities - surrender or die.

According to the police, over one million people surrendered,

pledging never to touch drugs again.

Thousands were sent to rehab.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-What is it here?

But as those facilities overran,

many have been ordered to undergo a less conventional treatment.

It's Zumba to get clean.

I've never in my life come across anything like this before.

I think also they have to come.

If they don't come, they're breaching their conditions of

the agreement they've made in surrendering.

Meredith says she was addicted to shabu for 25 years.

I want to know how Duterte's war on drugs has affected her.

-Your house!

-Yes.

-Yes.

-How many of you live here?

-Ten.

-Ten?

-Yeah.

That's a lot of you.

'Meredith surrendered six months ago.'

'She says it was Duterte's war on drugs

'that finally persuaded her to quit.'

So, do you think the war on drugs is a good thing?

I've heard of so many people being killed for the war on drugs.

What do you think of that?

'Meredith shows me what her street used to be like before Duterte.'

And so, how has the area changed since then?

The thing that struck me the most was that she was addicted

for 25 years and nothing could talk her out of taking her drugs,

not even her children,

but then the war on drugs came along and she's cleaned up,

she's managed to stay off drugs because he's also pushed

all the dealers out of the area.

And so I can totally understand why, from her point of view,

someone like Duterte actually does hold appeal.

Duterte's apparent success in tackling drug use

has gone down well with most Filipinos.

But the longer I'm here, the more it becomes clear who is bearing

the brunt of all this violence.

The thing is that every single one of these victims that

I've been told about their cases, they're the poorest,

they're the lowest of the low.

So it don't feel like this is a war on drugs.

They're not targeting the big guy, they're shooting fish in a barrel.

These are the little boys and they're easy targets,

and they're the ones getting shot.

I think, yeah, we're here.

'On another night shift, we find the first body of the evening.'

So, it's a really disturbing scene. We're on a really busy bridge.

There's traffic just going past.

There's not even police tape set up yet, it's that recent.

And the poor soul's just lying there.

'There are multiple gunshot wounds on the body.

'It's another execution.'

So, literally been here, like, four or five minutes and the body

has been cleared away,

they're just finishing off and packing away

and they're getting ready for the next one.

'We don't have to wait long.

'As we head back, near a slum, there's a second body.'

So, it looks like the body of a girl.

She's obviously been shot.

She looks young.

-Two under the bridge?

-Two bodies, one body...

'A local resident shows me how many bodies have turned up

'just in this underpass.'

So, how many in total?

And in how many months were there ten bodies?

That's more than one body a month.

-Yeah.

-That's a lot of bodies.

The next morning, I follow the dead body of the young woman.

So, this is the funeral home.

They've got a contract with the police

and you can see how busy they are.

They're busy here, there's a gentleman over there

who's cleaning a stretcher, and it looks like blood he's cleaning off.

And then I think they're body bags you've got hanging up here.

'Staff tell me the number of bodies they receive

'has doubled since Duterte's war began.'

Sounds bad to say, but it's good business for you to be

accredited with the police and be going straight to the crime scenes.

'Relatives of the young girl arrive to collect the body.

'They will only talk to me off camera.'

I've spoken to a family member and he said a witness

has come forward and spoken to them and said the police picked up

the girl just before she was shot.

Now, that does imply the police may be involved in the killing.

It's something we can't confirm.

I said to him, "Are you going to try and launch an investigation

"or are you going to press charges?" And he said, "No."

He said, "If the police are behind her killing,

"what is the point in going to the police?"

'The role of the police in the killings is denying many

'bereaved families any hope of justice.

'But they do have one option.'

This morning I've come to the Commission On Human Rights

as I've heard that this is the organisation that

desperate families come to looking for help.

And today I'm heading out with their investigation team.

'Jun runs a special unit

'which investigates extrajudicial killings.'

So, you think it'll be a long day?

-Only two.

-OK.

Do you find people are reluctant to talk?

Why do you think they are so scared of the police?

So, we're heading into the home, apparently,

where the shooting happened.

There's traces of blood still there.

The victim was 34.

He was shot four times by the police.

A sign was left next to his body.

It warned, "Drug pusher and addict. Don't follow."

The police claim the victim was selling drugs to undercover cops.

According to their report,

he fired his gun first after realising they were police.

Back at the office, Jun examines the official autopsy report.

The victim had four gunshot wounds and yet the police say they...

He tried to fire back at them.

But there's no trace of him firing back. Is that right?

And you have other cases where it's similar like this?

I see.

But why, though?

So he needs another six months.

But then, what happens after that six months?

Yeah.

One reason Duterte can carry on his brutal campaign

is because he's incredibly popular.

The more outrageous his remarks,

the more the public seem to love him.

Over 80% of Filipinos support Duterte.

He's achieved cult status.

There's a group in the Philippines that are so popular

called the Mocha Girls, and they're performing here tonight.

I've also heard that they're really big Duterte fans,

so I'm hoping to have a little chat with them after they perform.

Their show is pretty raunchy.

They're like the Filipino version of The Pussycat Dolls.

Audience participation is encouraged.

CHEERING

And the boys are well up for it.

Along with the fun comes a heavy dose of politics.

I see many in the audience raise their fist

with the Duterte salute.

'Backstage, I catch up with the band's leader, Mocha.'

Hi, I'm Livvy.

Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having us.

Thanks for coming today.

You're clearly a very strong supporter.

Can you explain to me, or summarise, how much of a supporter you are?

Just like President Duterte,

he said that he is willing to risk his life,

honour and presidency...

..to serve this country,

to serve the ordinary Filipino people.

And I can say the same.

In fact, it's not just me, it's all his supporters,

because it's now or never.

And he is our last chance.

As you know, around the world,

people have been highly critical of the war on drugs campaign,

especially because there have been thousands of deaths.

What do you think about the extrajudicial killings?

It depends on the definition of EJK, because now,

whenever someone dies, they blame it on the President.

It's as simple as this - before Duterte became President,

it's the law-abiding citizens that are afraid to walk

in the streets, to go out in the streets.

But now that Duterte became the President,

it's the criminals who are afraid to go out on the streets.

So I think that's a very good thing.

Duterte's government wants to show everyone

they're winning the war on drugs.

Today, the drug enforcement agency is destroying

the seizures from three raids.

So, this is the other side of the war on drugs.

One side I've seen out on the streets

and this side is the PR campaign.

They invite all the media to come and watch.

This is about getting the public on side.

'The meth lab chemicals and equipment getting destroyed

'are worth a total of £50,000.'

So, no-one can deny that this is an impressive haul

of sophisticated meth production.

But if this is the second destruction like this

in the space of six months,

I wonder how big the drug problem really is.

'Some people believe Duterte has massively exaggerated

'the drugs problem in the Philippines.

'One of Duterte's fiercest critics is Senator Antonio Trillanes.'

The Philippines actually has a lower percentage

than the global average, in terms of drug users for the whole population.

The global average is 5%,

the national average is 2%, so it's way lower.

But he needed to magnify it so that he can justify

this deadly war on drugs.

'He tells me about the first time he met Duterte.'

He was basically bragging about this person who was kneeling down.

He shot him in the head, a mafia-style execution,

and he was proud about it.

He was bragging about it.

And I was afraid for my country, that...

..he's such a monster, he's a psycho.

Duterte hasn't only encouraged police

to carry out extrajudicial killings.

Since he took power,

over 4,000 executions have been committed by vigilantes.

I'm feeling nervous. We're on our way to meet a vigilante killer.

This is one of the guys who's actually hired to go out

and kill users, pushers, and he's finally agreed to meet with us,

so we're heading there right now.

The vigilante speaks to me on condition of anonymity.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Why is Duterte so popular?

What do you do to help battle the drugs war?

Why?

How do you go about that?

'He says he belongs to a network of vigilantes who work together

'and kill drug dealers by breaking into their homes.'

Uh-huh.

-In the back of my head?

-Yes. Back of the head.

See, this is making me nervous, you just showing me.

HE LAUGHS

'He says that, in the last few months,

'they've executed 12 drug pushers.'

A lot of people watching this might think that drug dealers

should be arrested, sent to prison and it's dealt with,

and that killing drug dealers is wrong.

What would you say to them?

Do the police know what you do?

'He says it's the police who provide

'the names of people to be eliminated.'

Do you speak directly to the police?

But what do they say?

And how do you feel just after a killing?

What's kind of unbelievable is the police want people from

the communities to carry out the dirty work.

And they're almost recruiting people, whoever they may be,

within the slums, you can then target and kill these people.

So the police not only have lost control, but now they are

handing control to people who are willing to go out and kill for them.

It's insane.

Most of the dead in this war have been killed after being added

to the police's watchlist.

'To find out how this list is put together,

'I join an operation known as Tokhang -

'knock and surrender.'

So, they've got a list of names and they're literally going

house to house, neighbour to neighbour,

people in the street - everyone is being checked.

'The police work together with local volunteers who come up with names,

'often based on rumours.'

So, you work very closely with the community and listen for what

people are saying about each other.

Do you hear rumours and...?

'The homes of former drug users are prime targets.'

Six months.

'People are tested for drugs in their own kitchens.'

-Were they positive or negative?

-Negative. All negative.

Clean! Give me a high five.

Yes, mate!

'Back on the street, a local man is stopped.

'Someone has named him as a drug user.'

He looks quite angry about it.

'The police and volunteers escort him back to his shop.'

I think here you're guilty until you prove yourself innocent

when it comes to drugs.

'I'm terrified about what could happen to him if he tests positive.'

The suspect, who's just proven he's clean, is furious.

He's saying it's a breach of his human rights, he has a right

to know who's snitched on him and said that he's a drug user.

How does this make you feel, being forced to do a drug test?

Oh...

Oh, dude.

Oh, man, come on.

This is really starting to feel like a witch-hunt.

It feels like it's neighbour on neighbour, and people are

still worried, and in this climate, if you don't like someone, you

can take advantage of that and you can get them into serious trouble.

There are many stories of people exploiting this drugs war

to frame their enemies.

Even when they're innocent of any crime.

I travel north of Manila to meet a family who lost their son

only a few months earlier.

-Hello, I'm Livvy.

-Hello. Come in.

-Thank you.

-Welcome, welcome.

-Thank you.

-Ah, so...

-Yeah, this is my son, Yanis.

-This is Yanis?

He was a victim.

It is now just a picture.

'Alfredo's son Yanis was 20 when he was killed.'

These are his...

-These are his things.

-Ah, it's all his stuff.

-Yeah.

-Wow.

-So he liked basketball?

-Yeah.

-He's a tall guy.

-Yeah.

-Now it's lonely.

-Yeah.

-Lonely.

-Very.

-Yeah.

-This is the last time, when...when he came home, quite drunk...

-Oh, no.

-..and he lost his key.

-Oh, no. Did he...?

He get mad and hit the door!

And he forced this thing, knob, to open.

When he woke up in the morning,

he told his mother that he will replace the door.

-Ah, so he owes you a door, yeah?

-Yeah. After two or three days...

..it happened.

He was killed.

'Yanis's family say he was killed because a local man held

'a grudge against him.

'He was shot dead by two men on a motorbike.

'The same way many anti-drug vigilantes execute their victims.'

Everybody knows he don't like drugs.

Especially people using drugs, he hates that very much.

-He even voted President Duterte.

-He did, he voted Duterte?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Yes, we all did. Support him all the way.

The people who murdered Yanis

wanted to make it look like it was just another killing

in the war on drugs?

Precisely.

Because killing now is allowed. It's allowed here.

'As we were talking, Yanis's friend arrives.

'He was sitting next to him the night of the murder.'

-How many times was he shot?

-Once.

-But it went straight through?

-Yes.

Poor thing.

-He is so lucky.

-Yes, very lucky.

-How are you feeling now?

'He says they were out celebrating exam results.'

So the motorbike came from up here, to here?

-WOMAN:

-Yes.

And he shot Yanis first?

He fell down.

Oh, he was trying to pull him away.

'Shot in the back, he ran up this hill and hid.'

What were you thinking when you were hiding behind that sand?

'The day after the murder,

'Alfredo published a letter on Facebook which went viral.'

"I am addressing this to you, Mr Rodrigo Duterte.

"My youngest son was shot in the head by riding in tandem men.

"He died instantly...

"..with multiple bullets in the head. Let me be very, very frank.

"If they know how to kill people, so do I."

Were you angry with Duterte when you wrote it?

If he did not initiate this campaign...

..perhaps my son is still alive now.

In all the weeks I've been here, and through all the witnesses

I've spoken to, so many people keep telling

me stories about alleged police involvement in the killings,

so I have come to the Philippine National Police because

I want to put it to them and ask them about it.

No, that gives me...

'Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos is the spokesperson for the

'Philippines National Police.'

There's a steady decline in the number of crime incidents

when we started our campaign against criminality.

All crime happening in the streets went down, except for murder.

Of all the crimes to not decrease, murder, that's surely the worst one.

Yes, but we always look at the total crime environment.

'He pulls up a graph that shows 759,000 people have surrendered

'since the drugs war began.'

This is about 95%, these are surrenderers.

Which is this figure?

These are the suspects that were killed,

1,795 are being killed in police operations.

That's a big number, though.

-And these are just police operations?

-Yes,

police operations. Where do we focus?

On the spot in the clean sheet of paper,

or the entire paper that would say majority are surrendering?

But this spot, as you said, that's 1,795 families.

When we started doing this,

we would go out and always remind them, do not fight it out.

It is their decision to stay alive if they will not shoot our

police officers.

The stories we have heard from various families is that

there's a loved one in the house, the police have cleared the area,

come into the house, they have heard the shots fired,

there's been no exchange of gunfire and so those people,

because the police came and did that,

they are too terrified to then go to the police and report these police.

If they feel and they have proof and they have evidence and they witness

the police doing wrong, we always tell them, "Please report this

"and we will make them answer for the wrong deeds

"that they have done."

The world has been watching the President's campaign and his

declaration of the war on drugs and he did say,

he did encourage extrajudicial killings.

It then follows thousands of people being killed in the street

and they have signs, "I'm a pusher, don't be like me."

There was never an illegal order received by the men of the

Philippine National Police coming from the commander-in-chief.

Do you think people misunderstood it?

Because there are a lot of killings going on.

I mean, I've been out at night and seen the bodies.

Did he order the police or any of the members of the government

to do illegal act? None. Nothing.

But why did he say it, then?

Well, I cannot answer you that.

'Duterte is escalating the scope of his war on drugs.'

'He claims over 1,000 public officials are linked

'to the drugs trade.

'He's read out many of their names on TV.

'Some have already been killed.'

'The numbers in the firing line keep growing,

'and increasingly include the President's critics.'

So, President Duterte has made yet another controversial speech.

This time his focus was on human rights activists,

because they protect drug pushers,

and he's actually saying, "I will include you in the killings now."

So, of course, that's caused major alarm

in the human rights communities here.

'I made repeated requests for an interview with the man himself,

'but received no reply.

'Yet I did manage the next best thing.'

Hi, Miss Jocelyn. I'm Olivia. Hi.

'I'm meeting with his sister Jocelyn, the family spokesperson.'

There was something phenomenal about his winning the presidency.

It was because of the overwhelming votes...

..that he got. So it's the will of the people.

And why do you think that was, he got so many, though?

Because I think the people were tired of, of...

..the same things, you know? They wanted a change.

They wanted somebody who would say what he does.

There have been over 4,000 recent killings

under the war on drugs.

The extrajudicial killings.

Does the President want these killings to happen?

If I were to quote the president...

"If you go into drugs, and you get killed...

"..it's because you broke the law."

We all want due process.

We all want justice done in the right way.

But is there really such a thing in cases of where drugs are concerned?

Drug money's the biggest moneymaking that I know of.

You can bribe the judge.

So what happens? Gets dismissed.

I know that drugs bring all sorts of problems

and can destroy society and family and so on.

But isn't killing almost 5,000 people worse?

All I know is that the people who die

are people into the drug business.

This is an internal problem, the extrajudicial killings.

We are a democratic country. We elect a President.

And if they elected a President like him,

and that's the way they want it done,

that's the way it will be done.

'At first, Duterte said it would take him

'only six months to clean up the country.

'When that time ran out, he asked for six more.'

'So everyone has been caught up in the climate of impunity

'created by this war on drugs.'

# Take me out of my depths... #

'The cops...

'and the criminals.'

# Get out of breath... #

-'The killers...'

-# Ward off my death... #

'..and their victims.'

# All of those waves... #

-'The guilty...'

-# All of that water... #

'And the innocent.'

-# Made me tread water... #

-'The living...'

# Ward off my death...

'And the dead.'

# All of those waves and all of that water. #