0:00:00 > 0:00:03Broadcast earlier this year, viewers should be aware that
0:00:03 > 0:00:10Jonathan Head's report contains some disturbing images.
0:00:10 > 0:00:18The Philippines is being shaken by a one-man revolution.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25Either you will kill me or I will kill you, idiots.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28He's a tough-talking former mayor who has vowed to wipe
0:00:28 > 0:00:37out drug dealers.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41His war on drugs has unleashed assassins like Maria.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46When I got near this person who owed a lot to my boss I went up close
0:00:46 > 0:00:50and then shot him.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52Every day the bodies of suspected dealers are discovered.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58More than 3,000 have been killed in three months.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00It's really tiring and scary hiding all the time.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04You don't know if the person right in front of you will inform
0:01:04 > 0:01:10on you or if he might be your killer.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12The police are raiding prisons and being forced
0:01:13 > 0:01:16to purge their own ranks.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18The war on drugs is really bloody and messy.
0:01:18 > 0:01:23And we all know that.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26This war is being fought in some of the poorest communities
0:01:26 > 0:01:36in the country.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43Over the past two decades, the Philippines has been swamped
0:01:43 > 0:01:46by the cheap and highly addictive drug crystal meth.
0:01:46 > 0:01:54It's known here as shabu.
0:01:54 > 0:01:55It destroys lives, breaks families and feeds
0:01:56 > 0:01:59a powerful criminal underworld.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Filipinos are among the world's highest users of the drug.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07Official statistics say 1.8 million people here are addicted.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10But recently elected president who do believe the true figure
0:02:10 > 0:02:19is more than double that.
0:02:19 > 0:02:20He has promised to stop it
0:02:20 > 0:02:33by unleashing a violent campaign against the dealers.
0:02:33 > 0:02:34A late afternoon raid just outside Manila,
0:02:34 > 0:02:39part of President Rodrigo Duterte's antidrug campaign.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42In a country that's awash with guns as well as narcotics,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46they've come well-prepared.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48But what's striking is their target today.
0:02:48 > 0:02:55It's a prison.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21This is one of the largest prisons in Manila and we come
0:03:21 > 0:03:23in with a pretty large team of police, SWAT teams
0:03:23 > 0:03:26and by the look of them they were obviously expecting
0:03:26 > 0:03:38the possibility of serious armed resistance.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Actually it's more like a drug search in a standard prison
0:03:41 > 0:03:43with them checking where people keep their possessions,
0:03:43 > 0:03:50they have one man under arrest here.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53The drug problem is so serious here in the government's view
0:03:53 > 0:03:56that they have to send in teams like this into a prison
0:03:56 > 0:03:58that is technically controlled by the authorities.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02The inmates are all made to lie face down and search for any sign
0:04:02 > 0:04:04they may still be using or dealing drugs.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08The stench in these hot, overcrowded dormitories is overpowering.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13They think this man is an important dealer.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19But where is the other evidence they expected to find?
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Undercover officers have bought drugs here several times
0:04:22 > 0:04:26in recent weeks.
0:04:26 > 0:04:33But it seems this time the prisoners have been tipped off.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37In vain they press a Chinese prisoner for more information.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Many of the drug syndicates operating in the Philippines are
0:04:41 > 0:04:43Chinese-run.
0:04:43 > 0:04:50But all they can find is an assortment of rusty improvised
0:04:50 > 0:04:53weapons.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56These police officers, more than 200 of them,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59have been brought here from the other side of Manila.
0:05:01 > 0:05:08The local forces couldn't be trusted.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11That's how deeply the narcotics business has infiltrated this
0:05:11 > 0:05:11country.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Do you think the campaign that is going on now will succeed,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17that it will wipe out drugs?
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Again that is the challenge and we will do our best to comply
0:05:21 > 0:05:24with the orders of the president to get rid of drugs in three
0:05:24 > 0:05:25to six months.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28You do have problems inside the police, there are some
0:05:28 > 0:05:32police officers involved in the trade?
0:05:32 > 0:05:34There are, that's part of the cleansing process,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37internal cleansing,
0:05:37 > 0:05:43we don't care if they are policemen, we have to get them,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47put them in jail and if they fight then we have to defend ourselves.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49It doesn't matter, if there are policemen involved,
0:05:49 > 0:05:59we have to get them.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03In many ways what's happening today in the Philippines actually starts
0:06:03 > 0:06:07here at the monument to the first ever people power revolution 30
0:06:07 > 0:06:12years ago when a popular uprising overthrew the dictator
0:06:12 > 0:06:13Ferdinand Marcos and ushered
0:06:13 > 0:06:19in a boisterous and freewheeling democracy.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25Filipinos have kept faith with that democracy,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28voting in huge numbers every six years for a new president,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31yet everyone of those governments has bailed to come even close
0:06:31 > 0:06:34to meeting the hopes that were raised here,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38the old habits of corruption and abuses of power,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40lawlessness and grinding poverty would be curbed.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45And so the voters have now gone for something drastically different.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49They are elected outspoken mayor Rodrigo Duterte by a landslide.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01He has presented himself as an antiestablishment figure
0:07:01 > 0:07:08who can fix problems.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10He cares little for the polite conventions of politics,
0:07:10 > 0:07:15giving unscripted speech is often laced with obscenities.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18And what he calls the pandemic of methamphetamine addiction
0:07:18 > 0:07:25is at the very top of his list of things to do.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28We have seen a lot of ranting about human rights in my
0:07:28 > 0:07:30campaign against drugs.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33Let me be frank with you this afternoon, the fight against drugs
0:07:33 > 0:07:37will continue and will be unrelenting.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41If the resistance is violent thereby placing your life in jeopardy
0:07:41 > 0:07:46you shoot and shoot them dead.
0:07:46 > 0:07:57Can I be more clearer than that?
0:08:04 > 0:08:07The bodies of those suspected of involvement in drugs started
0:08:07 > 0:08:10turning up right after he took office.
0:08:10 > 0:08:17The police admit killing hundreds, all resisting arrest, they say.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20But many more have died at the hands of mysterious hit squads,
0:08:20 > 0:08:30the reasons for each death often unclear.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33This is a security camera video from a neighbourhood in Tondo,
0:08:33 > 0:08:40Manila, on the evening of the third of August.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42You can see local resident Danilo Mendoza buying something
0:08:43 > 0:08:48from a food stall.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49His young children playing around him.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51A motorbike then pulls up.
0:08:51 > 0:09:00The passenger then fires a single shot into his neck
0:09:00 > 0:09:01and he drives off.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04His wife is nearby and she rushes to help him, getting passers-by
0:09:04 > 0:09:06to lift him into a motor tricycle.
0:09:06 > 0:09:26But he died before they could get him to hospital.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29I went to talk to his wife, Christie, who runs her own small
0:09:29 > 0:09:30shop, and to his neighbours.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Was he killed because of drugs?
0:09:32 > 0:09:35She told me he had been a user, but he had stopped right
0:09:35 > 0:09:42after Duterte was elected.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47He was not a dealer, she said.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51When we got talking to other family members, they said Danilo had been
0:09:51 > 0:09:53involved in illegal gambling together with some
0:09:53 > 0:09:59corrupt police officers.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02they said he had had a loud disagreement with one policeman
0:10:02 > 0:10:04in the street where he was killed.
0:10:04 > 0:10:05That they believe is why he died.
0:10:05 > 0:10:14Danilo's assassin will probably never be identified.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The hit squads blamed for more than half the killings remain
0:10:17 > 0:10:22in the shadows.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27But we did manage to meet one of them, a young mother we called
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Maria.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34For obvious reasons her identity's been concealed.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44Maria was brought into the contract killing business and she says
0:10:44 > 0:10:47by her husband, but she'd only shot one man before
0:10:47 > 0:10:48President Duterte's election victory.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Since then she's killed another five.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55She has no idea why they were targeted,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58but she says her boss is a police officer who is involved in drugs.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13My husband was offered a job by a big-time policeman
0:11:13 > 0:11:14while he was in jail.
0:11:14 > 0:11:15He immediately said yes.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18A lot of people owe this man money.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20He is also a big-time drug dealer.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24One time, when they needed a woman for someone a man could not get
0:11:24 > 0:11:28close to, my husband got me the job.
0:11:33 > 0:11:41I felt really scared and nervous, because it was my first time.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46I just kept thinking "I'm doing this for my son".
0:11:46 > 0:11:50When I got near this person, who owed a lot to my boss,
0:11:50 > 0:11:52I went up close and then shot him.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58Next time I killed was after President Duterte got elected.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Since August I've killed five people.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05That's six in all.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09What do you feel about the people that you kill,
0:12:09 > 0:12:10because they have families too?
0:12:10 > 0:12:16Do you feel guilty?
0:12:16 > 0:12:18I do, because I have kids too.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22I do it because we don't have money, I do it for my children.
0:12:22 > 0:12:30I tell my husband that we can't keep doing this forever.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33I would not want my children to open their eyes to what we do.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38I don't want them to come back to us and say that they got to live
0:12:38 > 0:12:42because we killed for money.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47Maria's statements suggest a lot of the killing is done by people
0:12:47 > 0:12:51inside the drug trade, perhaps eliminating rivals or those
0:12:51 > 0:12:57who might incriminate more powerful figures.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01But the impact of the drug war is being felt largely in poor
0:13:01 > 0:13:04communities, like this one near central Manila.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06This police officer showed me around his district.
0:13:06 > 0:13:40He is the chairman and it's his job to keep an eye out for trouble.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44This is a senior citizen, a resident.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46Very nice to meet you.
0:13:46 > 0:13:52I'm Jonathan.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Ver nice to meet you, sir.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Crime is a big concern here and talking to the residents,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00it's clear that President Duterte's way of dealing with it is popular.
0:14:00 > 0:14:10They like the fact that he is humble and down-to-earth, they say.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14But Edgar knows of 16 crystal meth addicts living in his area.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Most of them are pedicab drivers.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21He has had the difficult job of getting them to register
0:14:21 > 0:14:25with the police just to keep them alive.
0:14:25 > 0:14:33They are afraid because of the president.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37They are worried about their life, their family, mothers, brothers.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39They are worried that, once they are caught,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42they know what will happen.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47They might be killed?
0:14:47 > 0:14:52Yeah, so they are really afraid.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55A few of the former addicts have joined the local
0:14:55 > 0:14:58council as volunteers.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03But there are no rehabilitation facilities here, or anywhere else
0:15:03 > 0:15:07in Manila, for them.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Nor is there much sympathy from their neighbours who applaud
0:15:10 > 0:15:17the President's hard stand.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20This woman is a widow who teaches in the local primary school.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24She told me that the parents of six children in her class are drug
0:15:24 > 0:15:29addicts, and she says it's worse in other schools.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33The bottomline is drugs and the poor people engage in drugs
0:15:33 > 0:15:40because in drugs they can make money, because drugs now can be
0:15:40 > 0:15:44bought in very...
0:15:44 > 0:15:46Cheap?
0:15:46 > 0:15:50Low price.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55I believe in Duterte's vision of cleaning and curing
0:15:55 > 0:15:59the land and society.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01I believe in him.
0:16:01 > 0:16:14So when I found out that he will run for president, I supported him.
0:16:14 > 0:16:24But can his anti-drug campaign succeed?
0:16:24 > 0:16:30More than 700,000 addicts have already registered with the police.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Here they are adding their names before joining a morning exercise
0:16:34 > 0:16:40routine in front of one of Manila's main churches.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43Trying to work the drug out of their system
0:16:43 > 0:16:47with some fast footwork.
0:16:47 > 0:16:53Led by Manila's finest.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57The police hope this will help to keep former
0:16:57 > 0:16:59addicts away from the drug, but in truth it exposes
0:16:59 > 0:17:07the lack of any alternative treatment for them.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10And you have to wonder how long a police force,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13busy cleansing its own ranks, can keep up this energetic community
0:17:13 > 0:17:19work.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Excuse me, sir.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25The police are also expected to make house calls to check
0:17:25 > 0:17:30on registered addicts.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35This is one of the roughest of Manila's neighbourhoods.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37And the police major is doing his rounds,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40checking whether one-time drug users are slipping back
0:17:40 > 0:17:48into their old habits.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51This man is recognised as the husband of a known
0:17:51 > 0:17:54crystal meth user.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00"You'd better stay off it", the major warns him.
0:18:00 > 0:18:07They've already nabbed one couple with a methamphetamine pipe.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10They're made to march, handcuffed, with the police on a walk of shame
0:18:10 > 0:18:14through the community.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18This man was an addict for a year.
0:18:18 > 0:18:24Now he must put up with having his home searched every week.
0:18:24 > 0:18:30But at least this way he can be reasonably sure of staying alive.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32How do you know if they're clean or not?
0:18:32 > 0:18:35If they're still using or not?
0:18:35 > 0:18:38If we can hear some reports...
0:18:38 > 0:18:39You talk to the neighbours?
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Yes.
0:18:43 > 0:18:53Back at the police station, the handcuffed couple are booked.
0:18:53 > 0:18:59Their two children look on tearfully.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02This isn't the first time their parents have been caught,
0:19:02 > 0:19:07as they may now have to move to one of the overcrowded jails.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10They're just users, small-time players.
0:19:10 > 0:19:17None of this really solves the country's drug problem.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Bigger dealers, like Roger, not his real name, have instead
0:19:27 > 0:19:31chosen to go into hiding.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33He says much of his business was with corrupt police
0:19:33 > 0:19:36officers and he is convinced they would kill him
0:19:36 > 0:19:40if they surrendered.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42It is much better to run.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46My colleagues who surrendered are now dead.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48If I surrender, they kill me.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50So why should I surrender?
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Don't you ever feel guilty about the job you do?
0:19:53 > 0:19:56You're selling drugs that are very destructive to people.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01Methamphetamine is a very destructive drug.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05I do believe I have committed sins, big-time.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10I have wronged a lot of people.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Some people have become addicted to drugs and because I'm one
0:20:14 > 0:20:17of the people who sells the drugs.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21What I can say is it depends on the person.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24I can't say that everyone who takes drugs commits crimes,
0:20:24 > 0:20:30they steal or kill.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32Me?
0:20:32 > 0:20:34I am also an addict, I don't kill.
0:20:34 > 0:20:40I am an addict, but I don't steal.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Roger plans to stay hidden for a few months and then get
0:20:43 > 0:20:45back to business.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47He doesn't believe President Duterte can keep his campaign
0:20:47 > 0:20:53going for much longer.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57Maria would like to get out of the killing business,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00but she says she can't.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02Do you ever wish that you hadn't started this?
0:21:02 > 0:21:05That perhaps you hadn't started killing, or do you feel
0:21:05 > 0:21:06you have no choice?
0:21:06 > 0:21:09From now on I don't want to do it any more.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11I'll leave it to my husband.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14But my boss says that if one of us tries to leave,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18we'll be killed.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31Millions of Filipinos, though, still hold faith
0:21:31 > 0:21:32in their new president.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34That, unlike his predecessors, he can shake this country out
0:21:34 > 0:21:43of its bad habits.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Many believe the Philippines needs another strong man.
0:21:46 > 0:21:52But transforming this disorderly island nation of 100 million people
0:21:52 > 0:21:58may yet prove too much, even for a man who is as ruthless
0:21:58 > 0:22:04and determined as Rodrigo Duterte.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49We've got a lot of fog out there, thick fog.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51It's quite patchy, which makes it dangerous as well.