# Police anti-drug killings rose during the 2020 Philippine lockdown

Date: 2020

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

## People

- Rodrigo Duterte: https://factrail.ai/people/rodrigo-duterte

## Drivers

- State Repression: https://factrail.ai/drivers/state-repression
- Rule of Law: https://factrail.ai/drivers/rule-of-law

## Sources

- https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/08/killings-philippines-50-percent-during-pandemic
- https://bangkok.ohchr.org/news/2020/news-release-philippines-un-report-details-widespread-human-rights-violations-and

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

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