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Police anti-drug killings rose during the 2020 Philippine lockdown

By 31 July 2020, government statistics analysed by Human Rights Watch recorded 155 people killed by Philippine police in anti-drug operations during the four months from April through July, compared with 103 killings from December 2019 through March 2020. In the causal graph this event strengthens State Repression, a driver that strengthens Number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by sex (victims per 100,000 population) — a worsening welfare path.

Rodrigo Duterte (Wikimedia Commons portrait; person avatar reused as fact cover, land-pack1 pattern).

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

By 31 July 2020, government statistics analysed by Human Rights Watch recorded 155 people killed by Philippine police in anti-drug operations during the four months from April through July, compared with 103 killings from December 2019 through March 2020. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s cumulative official figure stood at 5,810 people killed in police anti-drug operations by the end of July 2020; that figure did not include killings by unidentified gunmen. Police routinely said those killed in anti-drug raids had fought back. The UN human-rights office’s June 2020 report had already documented near-total impunity, with only one conviction for the killing of a drug suspect in a police operation since mid-2016, and said repeated verbal encouragement by the highest level of State officials to use lethal force may have emboldened police. Rodrigo Duterte was President throughout April–July 2020 and remained the public author and defender of the national anti-drug campaign; no cited source shows an individual order from him for these specific killings.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Rodrigo Duterte

    Person

    Indirect / organizational responsibility

    Through Government of the Philippines

    verified

    President and political author of the national anti-drug campaign under which police carried out the April–July 2020 operations. Government statistics document the police killings, while UN and Human Rights Watch reporting links the national campaign and lethal-force rhetoric to Duterte without establishing a personal order for each death. Contribution size is permanently_blocked (no sourced fraction); provisional 0.4 is stored only because contributions.size is NOT NULL — not a sourced magnitude.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactPolice anti-drug killings rose during the 2020 Philippine lockdown
    2. strengthensDriverState Repression
    3. strengthensIndicators (5)Number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by sex (victims per 100,000 population)
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.91 · verified

    Human Rights Watch used Philippine government statistics showing 155 police killings from April through July 2020, 50 percent above the preceding four months; killings by state police in a national anti-drug campaign directly strengthen state repression. Weight basis: The fact records 155 police killings in anti-drug operations over four months, a direct and severe state-violence mechanism. Weight 0.91 is the pack's qualitative severity class for this event, not an empirical coefficient.

    All indicators on this path (5)

    • Having a say in government

      via State Repression

      Worse

      Weakens · Relationship strength 0.41 (weight 0.91 × strength 0.45)

      Observed

      29.8% of population aged 16-65 years · 8.13 below the normal line (2023)

      Worse than normal

      Two readings: 30.2% of population aged 16-65 years (2021) and 29.8% of population aged 16-65 years (2023).

      20212023

      Above normal = better

    • Rule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score

      via State Repression

      Worse

      Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.41 (weight 0.91 × strength 0.45)

      Observed

      43.9 Score · 43.9 above the normal line (2024)

      Worse than normal

      26 readings, 1996–2024: rose from 43 Score to 43.9 Score.

      Normal is zero · any amount = worse

    1. FactPolice anti-drug killings rose during the 2020 Philippine lockdown
    2. weakensDriverRule of Law
    3. weakensIndicators (4)Rule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.64 · verified

    The UN Human Rights Office documented persistent impunity and repeated top-level verbal encouragement to use lethal force in the anti-drug campaign; those conditions weaken rule of law by reducing effective legal constraints and accountability for state violence. Weight basis: UN reporting documented persistent impunity and due-process failures around the anti-drug campaign, making the rule-of-law mechanism substantial but broader than the four-month death count alone. Weight 0.64 is the pack's qualitative severity class for this event, not an empirical coefficient.

    • Rule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score

      via Rule of Law

      Worse

      Weakens · Relationship strength 0.47 (weight 0.64 × strength 0.74)

      Observed

      43.9 Score · 43.9 above the normal line (2024)

      Worse than normal

      26 readings, 1996–2024: rose from 43 Score to 43.9 Score.

      Normal is zero · any amount = worse

    • Access to justice index

      via Rule of Law

      Worse

      Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.44 (weight 0.64 × strength 0.68)

      Observed

      0.62 score from 0 to 1 · 0.25 below the normal line (2024)

      Worse than normal

      125 readings, 1900–2024: rose from 0.37 score from 0 to 1 to 0.62 score from 0 to 1.

      Above normal = better

    • WJP Rule of Law Index (global)

      via Rule of Law

      Worse

      Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.37 (weight 0.64 × strength 0.58)

      Above normal = better

    All indicators on this path (4)

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Killings in Philippines Up 50 Percent During PandemicHuman Rights Watch · verified
  2. 2.NEWS RELEASE: Philippines: UN report details widespread human rights violations and persistent impunityOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights · verified
What the sources establish

Human Rights Watch described the April–July total as a 50 percent increase during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorRodrigo Duterte
  2. contributed toFactPolice anti-drug killings rose during the 2020 Philippine lockdown
  3. strengthensDrivers (2)State Repression
  4. strengthensIndicatorNumber of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by sex (victims per 100,000 population)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Police anti-drug killings rose during the 2020 Philippine lockdown. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/ph-duterte-lockdown-drug-war-killings-2020

https://factrail.ai/facts/ph-duterte-lockdown-drug-war-killings-2020

Accessed 15 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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