< In Philippine Drug War, Death Toll Rises And So Do Concerns About Tactics

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs continues. So do his high approval ratings. Five months in, some 5,000 people are dead. Reporter Michael Sullivan looks at how this war is playing out in one Manila neighborhood.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE: In a squad room in Malate, Chief Inspector Paulito Sabulao remembers being in trouble with his bosses back in September because his men hadn't killed any drug-dealers. He's not in trouble anymore.

PAULITO SABULAO: (Speaking Tagalog).

SULLIVAN: "We've recorded 12 dead since then," he says. But he insists all the killings were justified.

SABULAO: (Speaking Tagalog).

SULLIVAN: "Sometimes we can't avoid it," he says. "About half the time during these legitimate operations, those we arrest fight back." The last time, a bullet hit him in the chest, but he was wearing a vest. He unbuttons his shirt to show me the bruise.

Chief Inspector, did you get the guy who got you?

SABULAO: Yes, twice (laughter, speaking Tagalog).

SULLIVAN: "I shot until he went down," Sabulao adds. Since then, his precinct has been pretty quiet, he says - a lot less crime, fewer pushers and addicts of methamphetamine, or shabu, the drug of choice here. And most residents here say that's a good thing. But not everyone's happy.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAIN FALLING)

SULLIVAN: Down the street in the rain, I go talk to Marcelina Mallari whose son, Robert, was one of the 12 killed by Sabulao's men since September during an alleged drug deal gone bad. Mallari's mother isn't buying it.

MARCELINA MALLARI: (Foreign language spoken) He was already rehabilitated many years ago. He's not using anymore.

SULLIVAN: The police say her son was killed while trying to buy shabu from a dealer. And when the dealer shot at them, police returned fire, killing both men. His mother has another story - that the police just wanted the pusher dead, and her son was in the way.

MALLARI: He would be the witness because he saw. That's why he was killed also. And it's useless to complain about the policeman because they invent stories.

SULLIVAN: At least she knows who killed her son. In the war on drugs so far, most of the killings are unsolved.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHICKS PEEPING)

SULLIVAN: It's tradition here to place chicks on the coffin of a murder victim to peck at the conscience of the killer. The victim here is 17-year-old Clarence Japarde.

JENNLYN RAGUINDIN: (Speaking Tagalog).

SULLIVAN: His aunt Jennlyn Raguindin says police told the family Clarence's body was found in another part of the city with a note attached that said, I'm a pusher. There was also a small bag of marijuana, she says. The police have told the family they have no clue who did it. It's a story repeated all over Manila, all over the country since the war on drugs began.

LILIBETH DIEGO: I'm Lilibeth Diego. I'm 53 years old.

SULLIVAN: Lilibeth Diego is one of the 730,000 users who've surrendered to police since the drug war began, most sent home with a warning not to use again or else. A meth-head for more than 30 years, Lilibeth says she had a hard time the first month or so.

DIEGO: Yeah - withdrawal, withdrawal.

SULLIVAN: She's doing better now, she says - still not using, still afraid she'll be killed by police if she does. But she misses the drug because when she was using...

DIEGO: Power Ranger, yeah. (Speaking Tagalog).

SULLIVAN: "I could work from 7 in the morning till 9 at night," she says, "doing laundry and making money." If she weren't afraid of the cops, she says, she'd start using again in a minute. And she's got a plan.

DIEGO: Six years Duterte, yeah?

SULLIVAN: President Duterte only has a six-year term, she says. She's just going to wait him out. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Manila.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.