Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war has unleashed widespread and systematic killing with “near impunity” for offenders, a UN report said Thursday, calling for an independent probe into human rights abuses. Police have been encouraged by the highest levels of government to use lethal force on drug suspects and thousands have been killed by officers and unknown gunmen since 2016, the UN human rights office said. Many suspects had been put on “drug watch lists” by local officials and then visited by police at their homes, which often ends in a deadly shooting that officers claim was self-defence.
