The war on drugs launched by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte immediately after he took office at the end of June has been intensifying, with about 3,000 people killed by police and assailants in the past three months in connection with the illegal drugs trade.
In addition, a jail in Metropolitan Manila is packed with inmates, as nearly 20,000 people have been arrested on drug-related charges.
The Quezon City Jail in Metro Manila, built to house 800 people, is crammed with about 3,600 inmates. The jail is densely populated, with slightly less than three people inhabiting each square meter. Some of the inmates have been forced to sleep in an attic or on the ground.
As the number of arrests increased under the “war” on drugs, the number of inmates in the jail swelled at one point to at least 4,000 — five times the facility’s capacity. Deterioration of the jail’s environment has grown quite serious. A foul odor hangs in the air. Inmates say they were starving. Due to a lack of funds, the volume of meals has apparently been cut back. A 44-year-old man, who was arrested in July on suspicion of drug trafficking, said that he was not involved in drug trafficking but he was arrested after someone backstabbed him. He lamented that he had been brought to such a horrible place.
Duterte — a 71-year-old former prosecutor — declared war on drug rings when he was the mayor of Davao in the south of the Philippines and improved the local security situation, which had been considered the worst in the country. After taking office as president of the Philippines, he expanded the “war front” across the entire country, including Metro Manila.
When journalists at the pressroom on the first floor of the Manila Police District headquarters received a report at 11:40 p.m. on Sept. 24 that a drug trafficker was killed, about 10 local reporters jumped on the back of a truck. One of the reporters said with a wry smile that reporters did not have the time to visit all of the crime scenes because so many people were being killed every night.
The Sept. 24 incident took place in a neighborhood about a 20-minute drive from the Manila Police District headquarters. The man in shorts, drenched in blood, was seen collapsed on the floor in a room of a private home. According to police, two people riding a motorcycle suddenly appeared and shot the man.
Detached civic forces hired by police as well as vigilante corps are also involved in the crackdown on drugs. Killings by those other than police often stoke speculation over the deaths. A woman living near the crime scene said with an uneasy look that she could be killed by mistake even though she had nothing to do with drugs.
Source and image: Mainichi
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