In this Feb. 13, 2017 photo, Philippine Sen. Leila de Lima takes her seat during a session in the Philippine Senate in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. Philippine justice secretary said Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, criminal charges have been filed against the opposition senator allegedly receiving money from detained drug lords in a move that can lead to the arrest of one of the president's most vocal critics.

Start the conversation, or Read more at SFGate.</s>MANILA: Shadowy assassins have killed scores of poor victims in the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte officially ordered police to withdraw from his deadly drug war, a rights monitor said Friday (Feb 17).

Duterte pulled police from the crackdown on Jan 31 after a brutal seven-month campaign that left 2,555 drug suspects dead at the hands of law enforcers, with 3,930 other people murdered in unexplained circumstances.

The latest police tally given to AFP on Friday showed there were 4,076 "murder cases under investigation" on Feb 13.

This was 146 more than the end of January, which rights groups said showed extrajudicial killings had slowed but were nevertheless continuing in the drug war.

"The targets are still the same, as far as we are concerned: people linked to drugs and who live in poor neighbourhoods," Wilnor Papa, campaign official for the Philippine branch of Amnesty International, told AFP.

Papa said unknown assailants were now killing between nine and 10 people daily. This compared with about 30 people a day being killed by police and unknown assailants when officers were still leading the crackdown.

In one new shooting incident covered by an AFP photographer, police found four men shot dead inside a shanty in northern Manila before dawn on Thursday, in a scene very similar to those covered at the height of the drug war.

Witnesses said unknown suspects broke into the house and started shooting, while three other men were shot dead in separate incidents elsewhere in the same district that night, local police told AFP.

Duterte ordered all police at the end of January to stop prosecuting his drug war as he sought to cleanse the force of widespread corruption.

This came after anti-drug officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman then murdered him inside the national police headquarters as part of an extortion racket, according to an official investigation.

But Duterte promised the war would continue and more addicts, as well as traffickers, would be killed as he sought to eradicate drugs in society.

Amnesty issued a report this month accusing police of systemic human rights abuses in the drug war, including shooting dead defenceless people, paying assassins to murder addicts and stealing from those they killed.

It also said police were being paid by their superiors to kill.

Duterte has since ordered the much smaller Drug Enforcement Agency to lead the drug crackdown, with the support of the military.

Derrick Carreon, spokesman for the 1,791-member drug agency, told AFP there had been far fewer killings by authorities since it took charge, without giving figures.

"(But) there is no point in comparing these figures because the police is a much larger organisation, capable of conducting more operations," Carreon said, adding the military had mostly acted as observers so far.</s>Thousands of Filipino Catholics condemn a 'spreading culture of violence' following the president's anti-drug policy.

Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in the Philippine capital in a "show of force" to protest the extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug war.

The rally was called the "Walk for Life", gathered 20,000 people, according to the organisers. Manila police estimated the crowd at 10,000.

But the the biggest rally yet against the killings, members of one of the nation's oldest and most powerful institutions prayed and sang hymns as they marched before dawn on Saturday, to condemn a "spreading culture of violence".

More than 7,000 people have died since Duterte took office almost eight months ago and ordered an unprecedented crime war that has drawn global criticism for alleged human rights abuses.

The move, however, has been popular with many in the mainly Catholic nation.

"We have to stand up. Somehow this is already a show of force by the faithful that they don't like these extrajudicial killings," Manila bishop Broderick Pabillo told AFP news agency before addressing the crowd.

"I am alarmed and angry at what's happening because this is something that is regressive. It does not show our humanity."

The demonstrators also condemned legislation restoring the death penalty for drug-related crimes and other offences.

Duterte, 71, has attacked the Church as being "full of sh*t" and "the most hypocritical institution" for speaking out against a campaign that he says would save generations of Filipinos from the drug menace.

About 80 percent of the 100 million Filipinos are Catholic.

READ MORE: Children and Duterte's drug war - Lessons from the past

The Church helped lead the revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and a 2001 uprising against then-president Joseph Estrada that saw him ousted over corruption charges.

The Church had initially declined to voice opposition publicly to Duterte's drug war but, as the death toll of mostly-poor mounted, it started late last year to call for the killings to end.

"It is obvious that there is a spreading culture of violence. It is saddening to see, sometimes it drives me to tears how violent words seem so natural and ordinary," said Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle, the country's highest-ranking Church official.

"If the response to violence is also violence, then we are only doubling down on violence."

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines had called on the faithful to gather before dawn at the Quirino Grandstand, in the same venue where Duterte held a huge pre-election rally in 2016.

"Why dawn? It's because it is during these hours that we find bodies on the streets or near trash cans. Dawn, which is supposed to be the hour of a new start, is becoming an hour of tears and fears," Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the bishops' conference, told the crowd.

Among those who attended Saturday's event was Senator Leila de Lima, a former human rights commissioner who is one of Duterte's most vocal opponents.

The government on Friday filed charges against her for allegedly running a drug trafficking ring inside the country's largest prison when she was justice secretary in the previous administration.

De Lima, who has denied the charges, said she attended the event as a show of solidarity.</s>MANILA: Shadowy assassins have killed scores of poor victims in the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte officially ordered police to withdraw from his deadly drug war, a rights monitor said Friday (Feb 17).

Duterte pulled police from the crackdown on Jan 31 after a brutal seven-month campaign that left 2,555 drug suspects dead at the hands of law enforcers, with 3,930 other people murdered in unexplained circumstances.

The latest police tally given to AFP on Friday showed there were 4,076 "murder cases under investigation" on Feb 13.

This was 146 more than the end of January, which rights groups said showed extrajudicial killings had slowed but were nevertheless continuing in the drug war.

"The targets are still the same, as far as we are concerned: people linked to drugs and who live in poor neighbourhoods," Wilnor Papa, campaign official for the Philippine branch of Amnesty International, told AFP.

Papa said unknown assailants were now killing between nine and 10 people daily. This compared with about 30 people a day being killed by police and unknown assailants when officers were still leading the crackdown.

In one new shooting incident covered by an AFP photographer, police found four men shot dead inside a shanty in northern Manila before dawn on Thursday, in a scene very similar to those covered at the height of the drug war.

Witnesses said unknown suspects broke into the house and started shooting, while three other men were shot dead in separate incidents elsewhere in the same district that night, local police told AFP.

Duterte ordered all police at the end of January to stop prosecuting his drug war as he sought to cleanse the force of widespread corruption.

This came after anti-drug officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman then murdered him inside the national police headquarters as part of an extortion racket, according to an official investigation.

But Duterte promised the war would continue and more addicts, as well as traffickers, would be killed as he sought to eradicate drugs in society.

Amnesty issued a report this month accusing police of systemic human rights abuses in the drug war, including shooting dead defenceless people, paying assassins to murder addicts and stealing from those they killed.

It also said police were being paid by their superiors to kill.

Duterte has since ordered the much smaller Drug Enforcement Agency to lead the drug crackdown, with the support of the military.

Derrick Carreon, spokesman for the 1,791-member drug agency, told AFP there had been far fewer killings by authorities since it took charge, without giving figures.

"(But) there is no point in comparing these figures because the police is a much larger organisation, capable of conducting more operations," Carreon said, adding the military had mostly acted as observers so far.</s>Roman Catholic Archbishop Socrates Villegas, center, of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, leads thousands of Roman Catholics in a “Walk for Life” march around Manila’s Rizal Park to oppose the revival of the death penalty by the Philippine Congress as well as the killings of drug users and drug pushers in the so-called war on drugs by President Rodrigo Duterte at dawn Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo) Roman Catholic Archbishop Socrates Villegas, center, of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, leads thousands of Roman Catholics in a “Walk for Life” march around Manila’s Rizal Park to oppose the revival of the death penalty by the Philippine Congress as well as the killings of drug users and drug pushers in the so-called war on drugs by President Rodrigo Duterte at dawn Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo)

Thousands of Roman Catholics marched through the Philippines capital Manila on Saturday in the biggest gathering denouncing extra-judicial killings and a government plan to reimpose the death penalty for criminals. Dubbed a “Walk for Life” prayer rally and endorsed by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the gathering came just days after the church launched its strongest attack against President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

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Organisers claimed as many as 50,000 people took part in the march toward Manila’s Rizal Park, while about 10,000 based on police estimates stayed to hear speeches. More than 7,600 people have been killed since Duterte launched his anti-drugs campaign seven months ago. More than 2,500 died in shootouts during raids and sting operations, according to the police. Both the government and police have denied that extrajudicial killings have taken place. But human rights groups believe many deaths that police had attributed to vigilantes were carried out by assassins likely colluding with police.

“We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill. It also increases the number of killers,” CBCP president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, who also joined the rally, called for strengthening and promoting the culture of non-violent movements. In its most strongly worded attack on the crackdown on drug pushers and users, a CBCP pastoral letter read out at services across the country early this month said killing people was not the answer to trafficking of illegal drugs.

Nearly 80 per cent of the Philippines’ 100 million people are Catholic and until recently the church had been hesitant to criticise Duterte’s war on drugs. Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte’s war on drugs now facing three drug-related charges, also joined the rally. She said the charges were meant to silence her. “There’s no other reason because I’m innocent and not at all involved in the drug trade,” she said. “I’m here with the people because of our shared thoughts and opinion, and shared views, and shared convictions.”

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for reaction about Saturday’s rally.</s>The latest police tally shows there are 4,076 'murder cases under investigation' on February 13. This is 146 more than the end of January.

MANILA, Philippines – Shadowy assassins have killed scores of poor victims in the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte officially ordered police to withdraw from his deadly drug war, a rights monitor said Friday, February 17.

Duterte pulled police from the crackdown on January 31 after a brutal seven-month campaign that left 2,555 drug suspects dead at the hands of law enforcers, with 3,930 other people murdered in unexplained circumstances.

The latest police tally given to the agence France-Presse on Friday showed there were 4,076 "murder cases under investigation" on February 13.

This was 146 more than the end of January, which rights groups said showed extrajudicial killings had slowed but were nevertheless continuing in the drug war.

"The targets are still the same, as far as we are concerned: people linked to drugs and who live in poor neighbourhoods," Wilnor Papa, campaign official for the Philippine branch of Amnesty International, told AFP.

Papa said unknown assailants were now killing between 9 and 10 people daily. This compared with about 30 people a day being killed by police and unknown assailants when officers were still leading the crackdown.

In one new shooting incident covered by an Agence France-Presse photographer, police found four men shot dead inside a shanty in northern Manila before dawn on Thursday, in a scene very similar to those covered at the height of the drug war.

Witnesses said unknown suspects broke into the house and started shooting, while 3 other men were shot dead in separate incidents elsewhere in the same district that night, local police told AFP.

Duterte ordered all police at the end of January to stop prosecuting his drug war as he sought to cleanse the force of widespread corruption.

This came after anti-drug officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman then murdered him inside the national police headquarters as part of an extortion racket, according to an official investigation.

But Duterte promised the war would continue and more addicts, as well as traffickers, would be killed as he sought to eradicate drugs in society.

Amnesty issued a report this month accusing police of systemic human rights abuses in the drug war, including shooting dead defenceless people, paying assassins to murder addicts and stealing from those they killed.

It also said police were being paid by their superiors to kill.

Duterte has since ordered the much smaller Drug Enforcement Agency to lead the drug crackdown, with the support of the military.

Derrick Carreon, spokesman for the 1,791-member drug agency, told AFP there had been far fewer killings by authorities since it took charge, without giving figures.

"(But) there is no point in comparing these figures because the police is a much larger organization, capable of conducting more operations," Carreon said, adding the military had mostly acted as observers so far.</s>Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in the Philippine capital early Saturday for a “show of force” in the biggest rally yet to stop extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

More than 6,000 people have died since Duterte took office seven months ago and ordered an unprecedented crime war that has drawn global criticism for alleged human rights abuses, but is popular with many in the mainly Catholic country.

Members of one of the nation’s oldest and most powerful institutions chanted prayers and sang hymns as they marched to condemn a “spreading culture of violence.”

“We have to stand up. Somehow this is already a show of force by the faithful that they don’t like these extrajudicial killings,” Manila Bishop Broderick Pabillo said before addressing the crowd.

“I am alarmed and angry at what’s happening because this is something that is regressive. It does not show our humanity.”

Duterte, 71, has attacked the church as being “full of shit” and “the most hypocritical institution” for speaking out against a campaign that he says will save generations of Filipinos from the drug menace.

About eight in 10 Filipinos are Catholic, making the former Spanish colony of more than 100 million people Asia’s bastion of Christianity.

The church helped lead the revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and a 2001 uprising against then-President Joseph Estrada that saw him ousted over corruption charges.

It had initially declined to voice opposition publicly to Duterte’s drug war but, as the death toll of mostly poor people mounted, it began late last year to call for the killings to end.

Saturday’s event, called the “Walk for Life,” gathered 20,000 people, according to the organizers. Manila police estimated the crowd at 10,000.

The rally also opposed Duterte’s push to restore the death penalty, his top legislative priority as part of his crime war.

“It is obvious that there is a spreading culture of violence. It is saddening to see, sometimes it drives me to tears how violent words seem so natural and ordinary,” said Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle, the country’s highest-ranking church official.

“In your surroundings, in your neighborhood, there are so many lives that must be saved. They will not be saved by mere discussion.”

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines had called on the faithful to gather at the Quirino Grandstand, where Duterte held a huge pre-election rally, from 4:30 a.m.

“Why dawn? It’s because it is during these hours that we find bodies on the streets or near trash cans. Dawn, which is supposed to be the hour of a new start, is becoming an hour of tears and fears,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the bishops’ conference, told the crowd.

Villegas this month issued the church’s strongest statement against the drug war, warning against a “reign of terror” in poor communities.

Among those who attended Saturday’s event was Sen. Leila de Lima, a former human rights commissioner and one of Duterte’s most vocal opponents.

The government Friday filed charges against her for allegedly running a drug trafficking ring using criminals in the country’s largest prison when she was justice secretary in the previous administration.

De Lima, who has repeatedly insisted the charges against her are trumped up to silence her and intimidate other Duterte critics, said she attended Saturday’s event as a show of solidarity.

“For as long as I can, I will continue to fight. They cannot silence me,” de Lima, who is expecting to be arrested in the coming days, said.

Bone cancer survivor Lucy Castillo, 56, turned up in a wheelchair along with dozens of other people with disabilities.

“When I was in so much pain, I could have taken my life but I did not. Only God can take it,” she said.

“I was diagnosed 40 years ago but I was given a chance to live. I want to give these drug addicts another chance.”</s>Shadowy assassins are still killing poor Filipinos, despite a police withdrawal from Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug war, a rights group said Friday, as Manila filed criminal charges against the president's top critic.

Duterte ordered the police to step back at the end of January after a seven-month campaign that had left 6,485 people dead, many in unexplained circumstances.

The latest tally given to AFP on Friday showed an extra 146 people had died since the January 31 stand-down was ordered, which rights groups said showed extrajudicial killings were continuing.

"The targets are still the same, as far as we are concerned: people linked to drugs and who live in poor neighbourhoods," Wilnor Papa, campaign official for the Philippine branch of Amnesty International, told AFP.

Papa said unknown assailants were now killing between nine and 10 people daily. This compared with about 30 people a day being killed by police and unknown assailants when officers were still leading the crackdown.

In one new shooting incident covered by an AFP photographer, police found four men dead inside a shanty in northern Manila before dawn on Thursday, in a scene very similar to those covered at the height of the drug war.

Witnesses said unknown suspects broke into the house and started shooting, while three other men were shot dead in separate incidents elsewhere in the same district that night, local police told AFP.

Duterte ordered all police to stop prosecuting his drug war after anti-drug officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman then murdered him inside the national police headquarters as part of an extortion racket, according to an official investigation.

But Duterte promised that the war would continue and more addicts, as well as traffickers, would be killed as he sought to eradicate drugs in society.

Although the anti-drugs campaign is popular among voters, campaigners say it has granted a licence to kill to anyone with a grudge and a gun.

But critics are finding it increasingly tough to get a hearing in the Philippines.

On Friday the government filed criminal charges against Senator Leila de Lima, a justice secretary in the previous government and former human rights commissioner who is one of Duterte's most vocal opponents.

The charges allege she ran a drug trafficking ring using criminals in the country's largest prison when she was justice secretary.

De Lima said in a statement that the charges, which could land her a 30-year jail term, were solely aimed at silencing her opposition.

"If the loss of my freedom is the price I have to pay for standing up against the butchery of the Duterte regime, then it is a price I am willing to pay," she said, describing the charges as "false".

De Lima has not yet been arrested.

In an earlier report, Amnesty said the police were guilty of systemic human rights abuses in the drug war, including shooting dead defenceless people, paying assassins to murder addicts and stealing from those they killed.

It also said police were being paid by their superiors to kill.

Duterte has since ordered the much smaller Drug Enforcement Agency to lead the drug crackdown, with the support of the military.

Derrick Carreon, spokesman for the 1,791-member drug agency, told AFP there had been far fewer killings by authorities since it took charge, without giving figures.

"(But) there is no point in comparing these figures because the police is a much larger organisation, capable of conducting more operations," Carreon said, adding the military had mostly acted as observers so far.</s>Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in the Philippine capital early Saturday for a “show of force” in the biggest rally yet to stop extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

More than 6,000 people have died since Duterte took office seven months ago and ordered an unprecedented crime war that has drawn global criticism for alleged human rights abuses, but is popular with many in the mainly Catholic country.

Members of one of the nation’s oldest and most powerful institutions chanted prayers and sang hymns as they marched to condemn a “spreading culture of violence.”

“We have to stand up. Somehow this is already a show of force by the faithful that they don’t like these extrajudicial killings,” Manila Bishop Broderick Pabillo said before addressing the crowd.

“I am alarmed and angry at what’s happening because this is something that is regressive. It does not show our humanity.”

Duterte, 71, has attacked the church as being “full of shit” and “the most hypocritical institution” for speaking out against a campaign that he says will save generations of Filipinos from the drug menace.

About eight in 10 Filipinos are Catholic, making the former Spanish colony of more than 100 million people Asia’s bastion of Christianity.

The church helped lead the revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and a 2001 uprising against then-President Joseph Estrada that saw him ousted over corruption charges.

It had initially declined to voice opposition publicly to Duterte’s drug war but, as the death toll of mostly poor people mounted, it began late last year to call for the killings to end.

Saturday’s event, called the “Walk for Life,” gathered 20,000 people, according to the organizers. Manila police estimated the crowd at 10,000.

The rally also opposed Duterte’s push to restore the death penalty, his top legislative priority as part of his crime war.

“It is obvious that there is a spreading culture of violence. It is saddening to see, sometimes it drives me to tears how violent words seem so natural and ordinary,” said Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle, the country’s highest-ranking church official.

“In your surroundings, in your neighborhood, there are so many lives that must be saved. They will not be saved by mere discussion.”

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines had called on the faithful to gather at the Quirino Grandstand, where Duterte held a huge pre-election rally, from 4:30 a.m.

“Why dawn? It’s because it is during these hours that we find bodies on the streets or near trash cans. Dawn, which is supposed to be the hour of a new start, is becoming an hour of tears and fears,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the bishops’ conference, told the crowd.

Villegas this month issued the church’s strongest statement against the drug war, warning against a “reign of terror” in poor communities.

Among those who attended Saturday’s event was Sen. Leila de Lima, a former human rights commissioner and one of Duterte’s most vocal opponents.

The government Friday filed charges against her for allegedly running a drug trafficking ring using criminals in the country’s largest prison when she was justice secretary in the previous administration.

De Lima, who has repeatedly insisted the charges against her are trumped up to silence her and intimidate other Duterte critics, said she attended Saturday’s event as a show of solidarity.

“For as long as I can, I will continue to fight. They cannot silence me,” de Lima, who is expecting to be arrested in the coming days, said.

Bone cancer survivor Lucy Castillo, 56, turned up in a wheelchair along with dozens of other people with disabilities.

“When I was in so much pain, I could have taken my life but I did not. Only God can take it,” she said.

“I was diagnosed 40 years ago but I was given a chance to live. I want to give these drug addicts another chance.”</s>Image copyright Reuters Image caption Senator Leila De Lima has spoken out strongly against extrajudicial killings

Philippine prosecutors have filed drug-related charges against a senator who is an outspoken critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

Senator Leila de Lima is accused of receiving money from detained drug lords.

A former top human rights official, she has denied the claims, calling them "politically motivated".

More than 7,000 people have been killed since Mr Duterte launched his war on the drug trade in July 2016.

Critics say he has encouraged police, vigilantes and mercenaries to shoot suspected drug dealers and users on sight.

Mr Duterte has defended the crackdown, saying police were only authorised to open fire when threatened by suspects.

'Butchery'

Ms De Lima, who served as justice secretary under Mr Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino, has been one of the most vocal critics of the crackdown.

When she served as chair of the Commission on Human Rights between 2008-2010, she investigated Mr Duterte - who was then mayor of Davao City - over unexplained deaths during his anti-crime campaign.

She is now accused of accepting money from jailed drug lords and allowing a convict to run a drug operation from behind bars.

Justice Minister Vitaliano Aguirre said three charges had been filed against Ms De Lima, her driver and a number of other people. "This is not the product of politics, this is the product of drug trading,'' he said.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Mr Duterte launched a major drug crackdown after he became president last year

Image copyright AFP Image caption More than 7,000 people have been killed in the war on drugs, leaving behind grieving families

Ms De Lima has strongly rejected the allegations.

"If the loss of my freedom is the price I have to pay for standing up against the butchery of the Duterte regime, then it is a price I am willing to pay,'' she said in a statement.

"But they are mistaken if they think my fight ends here. It has only begun.''

Mr Duterte suspended his crackdown last month after the killing of a South Korean businessman inside police headquarters. He said the police force needed to be cleaned up and has now ordered the Drug Enforcement Agency, rather than the police, to lead it, with back-up from the military.

The death toll from the crackdown has attracted intense criticism from human rights groups and Western countries, although the president continues to enjoy a high level of support among Filipinos.
Leila de Lima, senator and critic of the Philippine Drug War, is charged by Philippines justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II of alleged drug-related crimes.