title: Philippine drug war

text: In October 2018, Duterte signed an executive order institutionalizing the Philippine Anti-Illegal Drugs Strategy, which prescribes a more balanced government approach in the fight against illegal drugs by directing all government departments and agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, and state universities and colleges to craft their own plans relative to the strategy.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The controversial Tanauan, Batangas mayor Antonio Halili was assassinated by an unknown sniper during a flag-raising ceremony on July 2, 2018, becoming the 11th local government official to be killed in the drug war. On the following day, Ferdinand Bote, mayor of General Tinio, was shot dead in his vehicle in Cabanatuan City.


title: Philippine drug war

text: After holding deliberations on petitions by the Free Legal Assistance Group and the Center for International Law, the Philippine Supreme Court in December 2017 ordered the solicitor-general to release documents related to the drug war. In January 2018, the Supreme Court granted the petitioners a writ of amparo and issued restraining orders against police officers. The spokesperson for the President said the administration will comply with the order.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Supreme Court issued a second writ of amparo in February 2018, prohibiting Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno and police chief Ronald dela Rosa from going within one kilometer from the widow of a drug war victim killed in Antipolo, Rizal.


title: Philippine drug war

text: A survey conducted by SWS from December 16–19, 2018, showing that 66% of the Filipinos believe that drug addicts in the country have diminished substantially.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On March 1, 2019, results of an SWS survey conducted from December 16 to 19, 2018, on 1,440 adults nationwide was released that concluded that 78% (or almost 4 out of 5 Filipinos) were worried "that they, or someone they know, will be a victim of extrajudicial killings (EJK)." However, Philippine National Police chief, Police General Oscar Albayalde criticized the survey results pointing out that the survey wrongly presented a question which "cannot be validated by respondents without keen awareness or understanding of EJK as we know it from Administrative Order No. 35 Series of 2012 by President [Benigno Simeon] Aquino [III]." He reiterated "I take the latest survey results on public perception to alleged extrajudicial killing with a full cup of salt. It shouldn’t be surprising that 78 percent are afraid of getting killed. Who isn’t afraid to die, anyway?"


title: Philippine drug war

text: On March 14, Duterte released another list of the politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade. The list consists of 45 incumbent officials: 33 mayors, 8 vice mayors, 3 congress representatives, one board member, and one former mayor. Of all politicians named, there are eight politicians belong to Duterte's own political party PDP–Laban. Opposition figures such as senatorial candidates from Otso Diretso said that Duterte used the list "to ensure their allies would win" in May 2019 election.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On March 17, the country formally withdrew from the ICC after the country's withdrawal notification was received by the Secretary-General of the United Nations the previous year.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In September 2019, the authorities accused Guia Gomez-Castro, former chair of Barangay 484 in Sampaloc, Manila, as a mastermind of "recycling" the illegal drugs the law enforcement seized to the corrupt police officers. Dubbed by the authorities as "drug queen", the PDEA added that the corrupt police officers have been selling "shabu" which is worth P16.6 million daily in Gomez-Castro's cohort and also said that Gomez-Castro is allegedly being protected by the corrupt police officers and other politicians. On September 25, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said that Gomez-Castro has already left the country on September 21. On the same day, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, through his Facebook live streaming, has ordered Gomez-Castro to surrender to her office.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Prior to this, in November 2013, the NBI raided the house of Gomez-Castro in Barangay 484, Sampaloc, Manila where they seized a P240,000 worth of shabu. In November 2018, seven people were arrested by Tondo police during drug operation; some of them are chairwoman's relatives. In a text message, Castro refuted all the accusation thrown against her.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On October 25, 2019, Clarin, Misamis Occidental Mayor David Navarro, one of the mayor whom Duterte named him for alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade, was shot dead in ambush by four masked men while he was being transported to the prosecutor's office in Cebu City, following his alleged beating up the massage therapist. Prior to his death, Cebu City police said that according to Navarro's family, the mayor had been received death threats in Misamis Occidental.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Philippines was deemed as the 4th most dangerous country in terms of violence directly meant at civilians in the world, declaring that 75% of reported deaths are from war on drugs pursued by authorities.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The "ninja cops" refers to the police officers who were accused of "recycling" the illegal drugs that they seized during the police operations. PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde was the center of the controversy who was accused of protecting the so-called "ninja cops" or the corrupt officials.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On November 29, 2013, twelve police officers, led by Major Rodney Baloyo, conduct a raid on Mexico, Pampanga, and seized of methamphetamine ("shabu"). Albayalde was the acting police chief of Pampanga at the time of the raid. That operation was supposed to go after Chinese drug lord Johnson Lee, but they evaded the arrest after Lee allegedly paid the police officers a P50 million. Lee currently remains at large and is now wanted by the authorities. Baloyo contradicted the morning police operations, saying that they raided Lee's house at 4:30pm. On November 30, 2013, authorities submitted the illegal drugs that they recovered as a evidence. PNP Chief General Oscar Albayalde was accused of covering-up in the issue.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In a Senate hearing, according to Major Rodney Baloyo, he ordered the Police Officer 2 Anthony Lacsamana to conduct a raid on the area; however, Lacsamana denied Baloyo's claim. Senator Richard Gordon has Baloyo detained at the New Bilibid Prison for "lying" at the hearing. A Senate investigation found out that P648 million worth of seized "shabu" from the November 2013 raid was not declared by the Pampanga police. Additionally, it was reported that the police officers have earned P50 million from the drug lord's wealth. Former Deputy Director for Operations of the CIDG Gen. Rudy Lacadin revealed that then-Pampanga provincial director Albayalde had received some money from the operation. A memo written by Albayalde sent to the Regional Director on December 2, 2013, stated that Albayalde himself ordered the buy-bust operation in Pampanga, however during the Senate hearing, Albayalde denied the knowledge of the operation.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Meanwhile, in Central Visayas, nine police officers were dismissed from their duties of Police Regional Office 7 over the reports that they "were proven to be drug users."


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Makabayan bloc demanded the immediate resignation of Albayalde from his post and other officials over the implication of the controversy. On October 14, Albayalde eventually resigned as the PNP chief. Duterte expressed his disappointment over the issue.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On October 21, 2019, The PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed a complaint before the Department of Justice against Albayalde and 13 of his personnel, citing a reinvestigation of the alleged recycling of some 162 kilograms of "shabu" that they seized, while the Senate suggested life imprisonment for the police officers. The PNP said in a statement that the accused "remain innocent until proven guilty."


title: Philippine drug war

text: On October 23, 2019, Vice President Leni Robredo made a statement, saying that Duterte should allow the UN to investigate the war on drugs, and she added that a campaign has been "a failure and a dent on the country's international image." Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo slammed Robredo's remark, saying that her claim "lacked factual basis." However, on October 27, 2019, Robredo clarified that she suggested for "tweaks" to the campaign and denied that she called to stop the war on drugs. On November 4, 2019, Duterte assigned Vice President Leni Robredo to be co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) until the end of his term in 2022, said presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) said that, the vice president is “misled in understanding the anti-drug campaign,” and that law enforcement is only a part of a multi-faceted dimension in addressing domestic drug issues using a holistic, balanced, and comprehensive approach. “While enforcement issues are more evident, we cannot discount the successes we have gained in the demand reduction part of the campaign," the DDB said. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo meanwhile tagged Robredo’s comments as “black propaganda” as they lacked factual basis—advising the Vice President to detach herself from detractors. Panelo said that while the government is not intolerant of criticisms, Robrado’s comments “become a disinformation campaign and an abuse of the freedom of speech and expression, and unproductive to the mature evolution of a democratic society a hindrance to its progress. On November 12, 2019, former Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division Phelim Kline made a statement to Robredo, stating the recommendation of arresting Duterte "and his henchmen for inciting and instigating mass murder."


title: Philippine drug war

text: On November 24, Duterte fired Robredo from her post. According to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, her removal is "in response to the taunt and dare" of Vice President Leni Robredo for Duterte "to just tell her that he wants her out."


title: Philippine drug war

text: In January 2020, vice president Leni Robredo reported her findings and recommendations on the drug war. Using data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Robredo said, "In spite of all the Filipinos who were killed and all the money spent by the government, we only seized less than 1 percent in supply of shabu and money involved in illegal drugs." In December 2020, "International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there is 'reasonable basis' to believe that crimes against humanity were committed in the killings related to President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs."


title: Philippine drug war

text: In June 2020, a shooting in Parañaque left one policeman and one criminal dead, as well as one cop wounded. P/ Lt. Armand Melad and his group were sent to Unida and Dimasalang streets, Brgy. Baclaran, to answer a complaint about loud noises from a karaoke. They then came across two males on a motorcycle without helmets. As they questioned the two men, an argument erupted, which led to the policemen trying to arrest the two. One of them by the name of Moamar Sarif drew and opened fire with a .40 Jericho Pistol. The police then swarmed and grabbed their own guns, while the other person on the motorcycle drove away. During the shootout, both Melad and Sarif were critically wounded, later dying in the same hospital. Another police named P/Corporal Allan Baltazar was also wounded.


title: Philippine drug war

text: August 2020 was the sight of a bloody series of killings in the province of Leyte, of which many drug dealers and users were killed. Jason Golong, a former drug pusher and user, was killed outside of the RTR hospital in Calanipawan Road, shot upon while driving his car. He was the son of former Tacloban City prosecutor Ruperto Golong, and was once captured in a buy-bust operation conducted by the PDEA in 2018. Retired police officer and drug user Pio Molabola Peñaflor was were killed in a drive-by shooting together with his son Alphy Chan Peñaflor in Palo, Leyte. Four more people were killed in the next month, two of them were former police officers – Constantino Torre, Dennis Monteza, Ian Pat Cabredo and Maritess Pami. Ian Pat Cabredo was a former guard at the Leyte Provincial Jail and was in the police's drug suspect list before his death.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In November 24, Police Captain Ariel Ilagan of the Southern Police District, was driving together with his family inside a Toyota Fortuner in Imus City, when armed assailants on foot ambushed them. The SUV they were driving at where set upon by fire from M16 rifles. The attackers then fled onboard a red Toyota Innova that had no registration plate. The shooting was captured in CCTV. Ilagan was killed while his wife and daughter sustained injuries. Ilagan previously headed the Taguig City Police’s Drug Enforcement Unit, but had been recently transferred to the Discipline Law and Order Section (DLOS), which handles “administrative and less grave cases” of policemen.


title: Philippine drug war

text: January 23 saw a major gun battle between the PNP and a Mindanao drug syndicate in Maguindanao. The shootout started when a joint task force of police and marines attempted to serve a search warrant to Pendatun Adsis Talusan, a former village chief who was convicted of robbery with homicide, double frustrated murder, and illegal possession of firearms. Members of Talusan's group then holed themselves up inside an apartment where the police besieged them. During the end of the firefight, 12 syndicate members including Talusan was killed, together with one policeman. The shootout happened a few days after the assassination of Christopher Cuan, mayor of Libungan and a politician included in Duterte's drug list.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In Palo, Leyte in the morning of February 10, a policeman by the name of Master Sergeant Jay Paul Culas was shot and killed while riding his motorcycle. The assailants were inside a four-wheeled vehicle when they shot Culas with pistol fire. His body laid dead on the national highway. Police determined the killers were tied to Culas' occupation as a policeman, with various suspects presented, including a Waray-Waray gang.


title: Philippine drug war

text: A fatal friendly fire incident happened on the evening of February 24, between PNP personnel and PDEA agents near a mall in Quezon City. Both organizations were conducting separate drug operations that intertwined near the Ever Gotesco Mall. A botched buy-bust operation then led to a shootout between the two that caused the deaths of two policemen, two PDEA agents, and one PDEA informant. Although the shootout happened near a crowded area, mall management managed to secure the mall of civilians. During the preliminary investigation, the PNP claimed that the PDEA agents fired first. The PNP and the PDEA decided to have a joint investigation on the matter, while Police General Debold Sinas appointed the CIDG as the lead investigating body. The Department of Justice had also ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to create a parallel investigation on the matter.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In February of the year, Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told the press that they started investigating the alleged police misconduct during the drug war. The DOJ believed the PNP had constantly failed to observe police protocols and ethics, due to the same similar patterns that led to deaths and the lack of any ballistics tests or paraffin tests. Findings from the investigation will be forwarded to Human Rights Watch. HRW in turn, urged the DOJ to keep its promise "regarding the alleged failures of the police force in its anti-drug operations." In the same month, Leila de Lima, one of Duterte's long-time critics, was acquitted of one of her three drug charges.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In June 2021, The International Criminal Court (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor applied for authorization to open an investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity committed in President Rodrigo Duterte's violent campaign against drugs. It also sought to probe killings committed in Davao City from 2011 to 2016. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, whose term ends a week after the investigation announcement, said a preliminary probe that began in February 2018 determined "that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder [have been] committed" in the Philippines since Rodrigo Duterte's presidential election win in 2016. Malacañang, through presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, responded to the claims by calling it "legally erroneous." The Philippines cut its ties with the International Criminal Court in 2018 when the Philippine Supreme Court junked petitions that challenged the country’s plan to withdraw from the international tribunal. The decision to withdraw was a reaction to the ICC's 2018 preliminary inquiry into accusations that Duterte and other Philippine officials had committed mass murder and crimes against humanity in the course of the drug crackdown.


title: Philippine drug war

text: President Duterte on his first national address of the year on January 4 said that he would not apologize for the deaths caused by the war on drugs by his administration.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The 2022 Philippine general election took place on May 9, 2022. Duterte is limited to only a single six-year term as president and thus was ineligible to participate. Bongbong Marcos was elected as Duterte's successor with the latter stepping down from his position on June 30, 2022. Duterte also said he would still pursue his war on drugs even as a civilian after the end of his presidency.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The war on drugs was a major legacy of Duterte's presidency, having included crackdown on illegal drugs as part of his presidential campaign back in the 2016 elections.


title: Philippine drug war

text: By March 31, 2022, 1,130 drug dens and clandestine laboratories has been dismantled, 24,766 of the 42,045 barangays has been cleared of illegal drug influence, 14,888 "high-value targets" arrested, including 527 government employees. worth of methamnetamine was seized, 4,307 minors (aged 4–17) has been "rescued" from the illegal drug trade. 6,241 people were killed in the 233,356 anti-illegal drug operations conducted from July 1, 2016, to March 31, 2022.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Duterte expressed willingness to be tried for his role in the war on drugs but only in domestic courts. He refuses to be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC).


title: Philippine drug war

text: Then-outgoing President Duterte advised then President-elect Bongbong Marcos to continue his campaign against illegal drugs even if its continuation meant its modification. Marcos considered giving Duterte the role of anti-drug czar under his administration but the latter expressed disinterest.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Among the first decisions of Marcos relating to his predecessor's campaign, was establishing a stance that the Philippines would not be rejoining the International Criminal Court (ICC). Under former President Duterte, the country's membership was withdrawn from the international court in 2019 after Duterte was accused of committing crimes against humanity in relation to his campaign against illegal drugs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: President Marcos announced a policy shift on the Philippines' campaign against illegal drugs. Marcos named "drug abuse prevention and education and the improvement of rehabilitation centers will be the focus" as the focus of his own campaign. Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said that the approach of the government under his watch would be to build "airtight cases" against "big-time" drug traffickers to minimize dismissed cases.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Following the arrest of two suspected drug traffickers in separate operations in Talisay and Cebu City on July 30 which led to the seizing of worth of methamphetamine, the PNP Police Regional Office 7 chief Roque Eduardo Vega declared that "the drug war continues".


title: Philippine drug war

text: Marcos would appoint his first PNP chief on August 1. The appointee Rodolfo Azurin Jr., also believes the war on drugs should be "relentlessly" continued but must be refined to include rehabilitation. He insisted that "killing is not the solution in drug war" and that drug lords should be arrested and have communities affected by the illegal drug trade developed instead.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Human Rights Watch (HRW) would dispute that a policy shift has occurred and believes that the PNP is undercounting war on drugs related deaths relying on data from the Dahas program of the University of the Philippines' Third World Studies Center which tallied 127 deaths from drug war incidents from July 1 to November 7. HRW disagreed with the assessment of the PNP that there were minimal deaths even with the premise of accepting the police's death tally of 46 people. Justice secretary Crispin Remulla was critical of HRW's statements viewing it as not objective and influenced by non-government organizations who are sympathetic to the Communist Party of the Philippines. He insist that extrajudicial killing is not state policy and that classifying a death arising from an anti-illegal drug operation as extra-judicial killing is wrong and misleading.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In November, Former police chief and senator Bato dela Rosa filed a bill in the Senate proposing the decriminalization of usage of illegal drugs in a bid to decongest prisons and fill in the underutilized rehabilitation centers. This proposal was met with opposition from law enforcement agencies who believes such move would send a "wrong signal" to people that drug abuse is alright.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on November 28 launched its Buhay Ay Ingatan, Droga'y Ayawan (BIDA; ) program apart from the campaign of law enforcement agencies. In coordination with local governments, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Health, the DILG's program is focused on illegal drugs demand reduction and rehabilitation.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In December, Dela Rosa called for action believing that there is a resurgence of drug syndicates which has come "back with a vengeance" citing two separate buy-bust operations which led to the arrest of police and PDEA agents. Dela Rosa concluded that syndicates are emboldened to operate due to the departure of Duterte. Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos in response points out that worth of illegal drugs was seized since the start of the Marcos administration.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Philippine National Police manages "Oplan Double Barrel" as part of its involvement in President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs in the Philippines. It consists of two main components: "Oplan Tokhang" and "Oplan HVT". Tokhang is characterized as the lower barrel approach while HVT which stands for high value targets is described as the police's high barrel approach. The operation was launched in 2016.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Philippine police temporarily suspended its operations in October 2017 after a directive by President Duterte amidst reports of abuse by the police with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) taking over as the leading agency against illegal drug activities in the Philippines. The police resumed operations in January 2018 with the police officially playing a supporting role to PDEA in Duterte's campaign.


title: Philippine drug war

text: One component of the war on drugs by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is "Oplan Tokhang". The name of the operation was derived from the Cebuano words "tuktok" (knock) and "hangyo" (plead). As the name suggests, Oplan Tokhang involves the police visiting the houses of individuals suspected to be involved in the illegal drug trade or as users, to persuade them to stop their activities and submit themselves to authority for potential rehabilitation. A more comprehensive guideline by the Philippine National Police then under the leadership of Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa was released prior to the resumption of police operations on the war on drugs in January 2019 after it was temporarily postponed. Tokhang is characterized as a Police Community Relations operation.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Under the guidelines, in a single operation, four police officers selected by the locality's police chief are designated as "tokhangers" to visit the suspects' houses in full uniform. They are to be accompanied by one member of the barangay, municipality, or city anti-drug abuse council, one representative from the PNP human-rights affairs office or any human rights advocate and at least one from the religious sector, members of the media or other prominent personalities in the area. They are only allowed to enter the suspect's house upon the suspect's consent or the house owner. The police coordinates with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the local anti-drug abuse councils for the conduct of the operations. The guidelines include the option for drug suspects to surrender themselves to the police or the barangay hall and the option to avail of rehabilitation. They are not required to sign any document. If the suspect refuses to surrender or engage with the visiting Oplan Tokhang team, their case is to be submitted to the Drug Enforcement Units, which will conduct relevant police operations including case build-up and negation.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The policy was first used in a more local scale in Davao, when Dela Rosa was still the police chief of the locality, leading police visits to drug suspects houses. The word "tokhang" has become associated with killings related to the campaign against illegal drugs prior to the release of the guideline with the PDEA chief General Aaron Aquino urging to discontinue the use "thokhang" to refer to the government's operations.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Oplan High Value Targets (HVT) is a component of the Philippine National Police operations under Operation Double Barrel which aims to arrest and neutralize individuals which the police allege to be involved in the country's illegal drug trade. They include drug lords and pushers who operate in groups. In its November 2016 report, the PNP Directorate for Intelligence said that of the 956 validated high-value targets identified by the national police since the start of the campaign, 23 were killed in police operations, 109 were arrested, and 361 surrendered. This accounts for over 54.6% of the total identified HVTs while another 29 targets were listed as deaths under investigation. The PNP also reported that at least worth of illegal drugs has been seized in the first four months of their campaign against HVTs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The high-value targets identified by the national police include Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa who earlier surrendered to the PNP before being killed in prison, and alleged number 2 Visayas drug lord Franz Sabalones, the brother of San Fernando, Cebu Mayor Fralz Sabalones, who surrendered to the PNP after being named by President Duterte in his narco-list speech.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs was aided by non-government organizations including rebel groups and vigilantes. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing the New People's Army (NPA), initially cooperated with the government but withdrew its support for the government's campaign against drugs in August 2016 although the communist party vowed to continue its own operations, independent from the government's anti-drug campaign, against drug suspects.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rebel group at truce with the government, forged a protocol with the Philippine government in July 2017 in which it pledged to arrest and turn over drug suspects taking refuge in the rebel group's camps and would allow the government to conduct its anti-drug operations in areas controlled by the rebel group.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Armed vigilantes and hired killers are also involved in the campaign, including the dreaded OG Imba vigilante gang.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency announced in 2019 that it had adopted a three pronged strategy to enhance the Philippine government's war on drugs. These three prongs were composed of supply reduction, demand reduction, and harm reduction.


title: Philippine drug war

text: During the "Duterte Legacy" campaign launch in January 2020, PDEA claimed victory via its three-pronged approach citing the successful activities.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Under supply reduction, PDEA and other law enforcement agencies conducted high impact operations and arrested high-value targets. Authorities dismantled drug dens and shabu laboratories, seized billions of pesos of illegal drugs, and arrested over 200 thousand persons involved in illegal drugs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Under demand reduction, advocacy campaign activities including lectures, seminars, conferences and film showings were conducted.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Under harm reduction, activities were conducted such as: "Balay Silangan", a community-based reform program for surrendering drug offenders, Project "Sagip Batang Solvent", which rescued street children—particularly those who were hooked on solvent-sniffing, drug-testing of public transportation drivers nationwide, and a "Drug-Free Workplace Program" for business establishments.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Although the three-pronged approach by PDEA was only adopted in April 2019, statistics of the activities above cited under victories in the PDEA's three-pronged approach under the "Duterte Legacy" campaign dated back to June 2016.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On August 16, 2017, Kian Loyd delos Santos, a 17-year-old Grade 11 student, was shot dead in an antidrug operation in Caloocan. CCTV footage appeared to show Kian being dragged by two policemen. Police say they killed him in self-defense, and retrieved a gun and two packets of methamphetamine. Delos Santos was the son of an overseas Filipino worker, a key demographic in support of Duterte. The teenager's death caused condemnation by senators. His funeral on August 25, attended by more than a thousand people, was one of the largest protests to date against the drug war.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Carl Angelo Arnaiz, a 19-year-old, last found in Cainta, Rizal, was tortured and shot dead also on August 17 (a day after Kian delos Santos was killed) by police after allegedly robbing a taxi in Caloocan. His 14-year-old friend Reynaldo de Guzman, also known by the nickname "Kulot," was stabbed to death thirty times and thrown into a creek in Gapan, Nueva Ecija. The deaths of Arnaiz and de Guzman, along with the death of Kian delos Santos, triggered public outrage and condemnation.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Human Rights Watch repeated their call for a UN investigation. HRW Asia director Phelim Kine commented: "The apparent willingness of Philippine police to deliberately target children for execution marks an appalling new level of depravity in this so-called drug war." Duterte called the deaths of Arnaiz and de Guzman (the former being a relative of the President on his mother's side) "sabotage," believing that some groups are using the Philippine National Police to destroy the president's public image. Presidential spokesman Abella said "It should not come as a surprise that these malignant elements would conspire to sabotage the president’s campaign to rid the Philippines of illegal drugs and criminality," which "may include creating scenarios stoking public anger against the government."


title: Philippine drug war

text: On August 23, 2016, a 5-year-old student named Danica May Garcia was killed by a stray bullet coming from unidentified gunmen in Dagupan City, Pangasinan during an anti-drug operation. Another minor, 4-year old Skyler Abatayo of Cebu was killed by a stray bullet through an 'anti-drug operation'. In the first year of the drug war, 54 children were recorded as casualties. On the same week, a 15-year old by the name of Angelika Bonita (sometimes spelled "Angelica") was killed while riding inside the Toyota Hilux of 48-year-old narco-lawyer Rogelio Bato Jr., the attorney of Rolando Espinosa. The two were cruising in a subdivision near a mall in Marasbaras, Tacloban when they were fired upon by M16s and .45 caliber guns. Both were killed instantly. Bato and Bonita were not related and questions surround their relationship. Rumors speculated that Bonita was Bato's girlfriend and that she was caught in the crossfire.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Newly seated Senator Ronald dela Rosa made a statement about the death of a 3-year-old child named Myka Ulpina in crossfire during police operations in Rodriguez, Rizal on June 29, 2019, reacting to the incident by saying "shit happens". It was alleged that Renato Dolofrina took his 3-year-old daughter hostage and that both were killed by the police after the father used the child as a "human shield." However, the family denied the allegations of hostage taking, insisting that the child was killed by a stray bullet. Also, a police officer who went undercover to buy crystal meth died in an operation after suspected drug user Dolofrina's companion discovered the ruse. A few days later, several militant groups and netizens, as well as opposition Senators, condemned dela Rosa's remarks. The Commission of Human Rights also condemned the child's death.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On July 8, 2019, dela Rosa apologized for his remarks and retracted his earlier statement, saying that the incident was "unfortunate."


title: Philippine drug war

text: Senator Risa Hontiveros, an opponent of Duterte, said that the drug war was a political strategy intended to persuade people that "suddenly the historically most important issue of poverty was no longer the most important."


title: Philippine drug war

text: President Duterte claimed to recognize poverty as a key problem of the country; the administration’s 10-point Socioeconomic Agenda, no.8 is to improve social protection programs, including the Conditional Cash Transfer Program, to protect the poor. President Duterte signed Republic Act (RA) No. 11315, or the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Act. RA 11315 authorizing the government to adopt a CBMS.


title: Philippine drug war

text: De Lima expressed frustration with the attitude of Filipinos towards extrajudicial killings: "they think that it's good for peace and order. We now have death squads on a national scale, but I'm not seeing public outrage."


title: Philippine drug war

text: President Duterte has denied involvement in the ‘Davao Death Squad.’ “It started in Davao as a political issue. As a matter of fact, you go to Davao, the DDS is not really a DDS. It was during the time ‘Sparrow versus the DDS of government,” President Duterte said. The President has pointed out that not a single case was filed against him when Senator Leila de Lima was Chair of the Commission on Human Rights for 7 years.


title: Philippine drug war

text: During his fourth SONA, the President called on officials to work towards lifting 6 million Filipinos out of poverty. According to data from Pulse Asia surveys, the poverty-stricken,classes D and E, never gave the President approval and trust ratings below 70% throughout the first half of his presidency. According to a Pulse Asia opinion poll conducted from July 2 to 8, 2016, 91% of Filipinos "trusted" Duterte. A survey conducted between February and May 2017, by PEW research center, found that 78% of the Filipinos support the drug war. A survey in September 2017 showed 88% support for the drug war, while 73% believed that extrajudicial executions were occurring. An independent survey in September 2017 showed that 88% of Filipinos support the drug war. As of 2019, it is at 82%.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Dela Rosa announced in September 2016 that the drug war had "reduced the supply of illegal drugs in the country by some 80 to 90 percent", and said that the War was already being won, based on statistical and observational evidence.


title: Philippine drug war

text: "Aljazeera" reported that John Collins, director of the London School of Economics International Drug Policy Project, said: "Targeting the supply side can have short-term effects. However, these are usually limited to creating market chaos rather than reducing the size of the market. ... What you learn is that you're going to war with a force of economics and the force of economics tends to win out: supply, demand and price tend to find their own way." He said it was a "certainty" that "the Philippines' new 'war' will fail and society will emerge worse off from it."


title: Philippine drug war

text: Malacañang and the chief of police declared the drug war a success, claiming that supply has been cut by 90 percent, with the government regaining authority at national penitentiary Bilibid where incarcerated leaders of cartels continue to control the narcotics chain from their swish cells.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In June 2017 the price of methamphetamine on the streets of Manila was lower than it had been at the start of Duterte's presidency, according to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency data. Gloria Lai of the International Drug Policy Consortium commented: "If prices have fallen, it's an indication that enforcement actions have not been effective".


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., quelled fears that foreign investors might be put off by the increasing rate of killings in the country, explaining at a press conference on September 19, 2016, that investors only care about profit: "They don't care if 50% of Filipinos are killing each other so long as they're not affected". On the following day the "Wall Street Journal" reported that foreign investors, who account for half of the activity on the Philippine Stock Exchange, had been "hightailing it out of town", selling $500 million worth of shares over the past month, putting pressure on the Philippine peso which was close to its weakest point since 2009.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Tagle acknowledged that people were right to be "worried about extrajudicial killings", along with other "form[s] of murder": abortion, unfair labor practices, wasting of food, and "selling illegal drugs, pushing the youth into vices".


title: Philippine drug war

text: During his official state visit to the Philippines in January 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe said: "On countering illegal drugs, we want to work together with the Philippines through relevant measures of support". He offered financial assistance for Philippine drug rehabilitation centers, and made no mention of deaths resulting from the drug war. He announced an $800 million Official Development Assistance package to "promote economic and infrastructure development".


title: Philippine drug war

text: In June 2016, Gary Song-Huann Lin, the representative of Taiwan in the Philippines, welcomed Duterte's plan to declare a war against criminality and illegal drugs. He said Taiwan is ready to help the Philippines combat cross-border crimes like human and drug trafficking. He later reasserted on October that Taiwan was an indispensable partner to the Philippines’ war on drugs. In 2018, Ricardo Parojinog, an alleged narcopolitician at Ozamiz and the brother of Reynaldo, was detained in Taiwan for illegal immigration and later deported to the Philippines; he was then found dead in September 2020.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On July 19, 2016, Lingxiao Li, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Manila, announced China's support for the drug war: "China fully understands that the Philippine government under the leadership of H. E. President Rodrigo Duterte has taken it as a top priority to crack down on drug-related crimes. China has expressed explicitly to the new administration China's willingness for effective cooperation in this regard, and would like to work out a specific plan of action with the Philippine side." The statement made no reference to extrajudicial killings, and called illegal drugs the "common enemy of mankind". On September 27, the Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua reiterated that "Illegal drugs are the enemy of all mankind" in a statement confirming Chinese support for the Duterte administration.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Indonesian National Police Chief General Tito Karnavian commented in regards to Indonesia's rejection of a similar policy for Indonesia: "Shoot on sight policy leads to abuse of power. We still believe in the presumption of innocence. Lethal actions are only warranted if there is an immediate threat against officers... there should not be a deliberate attempt to kill". In September 2016 Budi Waseso, head of Indonesia's National Anti-Narcotics Agency (BNN), said that he was currently contemplating copying the Philippines' hardline tactics against drug traffickers. He said that the Agency planned a major increase in armaments and recruitment. An Agency spokesman later attempted to downplay the comments, stating: "We can't shoot criminals just like that, we have to follow the rules." Most recently, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo used the language of “emergency” to ramp up the country's war on drugs, in a move that observers see as "in step with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s" own campaign against the illegal drug trade.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On September 9, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key spoke to Duterte about "arguably better" ways to deal with drug issues. The then Prime Minister commented "Now he didn't really give us a direct answer to what happens when and if innocent people get associated with what is essentially extra-judicial killings." The New Zealand government has repeatedly spoken to Duterte regarding his war on drugs across several administrations since and there was some consideration in barring Duterte from a layover arrival in New Zealand following the 2016 APEC summit in Peru, due to his human rights record, mainly as a result of the war on drugs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On October 16, prior to Duterte's departure for a state visit to Brunei, the President said he would seek the support of that country for his campaign against illegal drugs and Brunei's continued assistance to achieve peace and progress in Mindanao. This was responded to positively by Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah the next day according to Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said "he respects the method undertaken by the Philippine government as it is suitable for their country’s situation", while stressing that "Malaysia will never follow such an example as we have our own methods such as seizing assets used in drug trafficking with resultant funds to be channelled back towards rehabilitation, prevention and enforcement of laws against drugs".


title: Philippine drug war

text: On December 3, 2016, Duterte said that during a phone conversation on the previous day with then-United States President-elect Donald Trump, Trump had invited him to Washington, and endorsed his drug-war policy, assuring him that it was being conducted "the right way". Duterte described the conversation:


title: Philippine drug war

text: On December 16, Duterte and Singaporean President Tony Tan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong agreed to work together in the fight against terrorism and illegal drugs. In a meeting during a state visit both parties discussed areas of cooperation between the two countries.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The European Parliament expressed concern over extrajudicial killings in a resolution September 15, stating: "Drug trafficking and drug abuse in the Philippines remain a serious national and international concern, note MEPs. They understand that millions of people are hurt by the high level of drug addiction and its consequences in the country but are also concerned by the 'extraordinarily high numbers killed during police operations in the context of an intensified anti-crime and anti-drug campaign."


title: Philippine drug war

text: In response, the Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano stated that the European Parliament had crossed a red line when it called for interfering in the Philippines’ sovereignty. The resolution was said to be “biased, incomplete and even wrong information and does not reflect the true situation on the ground”. In addition, the European Parliament was also criticized when the Philippine Presidential spokesperson said that it is inconsistent that the European Parliament will condemn the war against drugs, which is now also being financed partly by the European Union especially in drug rehabilitation projects.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In response, at a press conference Duterte made an obscene hand gesture and claimed that the European Parliament's members were "hypocrites" whose colonial-era ancestors killed "thousands" of Arabs and other peoples. Duterte stated that "When I read the EU condemnation I told them fuck you. You are doing it in atonement for your sins. They are now strict because they have guilty feelings. Who did I kill? Assuming that it's true? 1,700? How many have they killed?"


title: Philippine drug war

text: EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, in a visit to the Philippines in March 2017, warned that unless the Philippines addresses human rights issues, the EU would cancel tariff-free export of 6,000 products under the Generalized System of Preferences. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella dismissed the concerns, saying that they revealed European ignorance.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On December 24, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Edward Markey, and Christopher Coons expressed their concerns regarding the alleged extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in Duterte's war on drugs. Through a letter sent to the U.S. Department of State, they noted that instead of addressing the drug problem, investing in treatment programs or approaching the issue with an emphasis on health, Duterte has "pledged to kill another 20,000 to 30,000 people, many simply because they suffer from a drug use disorder." Rubio, Markey and Coons also questioned U.S. secretary of state John Kerry's pledge of $32-million funding for training and other law-enforcement assistance during his visit to Manila. In May 2017, Senator Rubio, along with Senator Ben Cardin, filed a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate to restrict the exportation of weapons from the U.S. to the Philippines.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The US ambassador in Manila announced on December 14, 2016, that the US foreign aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, would cancel funding to the Philippines due to "significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines," explaining that aid recipients were required to demonstrate a "commitment to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights." The MCC had disbursed $434 million to the Philippines from 2011 to 2015. The funding denial was expected to lead to the cancellation of a five-year infrastructure development project previously agreed to in December 2015.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In February 2017, former Colombian President César Gaviria wrote an opinion piece on "The New York Times" to warn Duterte and the administration that the drug war is "unwinnable" and "disastrous," citing his own experiences as the President of Colombia. He also criticized the alleged extrajudicial killings and vigilantism, saying these are "the wrong ways to go." According to Gaviria, the war on drugs is essentially a war on people. Gaviria suggested that improving public health and safety, strengthening anti-corruption measures, investing in sustainable development, decriminalizing drug consumption, and strengthening the regulation of therapeutic goods would enhance supply and demand reduction. In response to Gaviria, Duterte called him an "idiot," and said the issue of extrajudicial killings should be set aside, and that there were four to five million drug addicts in the country.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In September 2017, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano delivered a speech at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly, during which he argued that extrajudicial killings were a myth, and that the drug war, which according to Human Rights Watch had resulted in 13,000 deaths to date, was being waged to "protect (the) human rights of...the most vulnerable (citizens)." In October 2017, Cayetano was interviewed by "al-Jazeera". He asserted that all 3,900 people who were killed in the drug war had fought against the police, and that all of the killings were being investigated.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In January 2018, Philippines' presidential spokesman Harry Roque relayed that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed support for Duterte’s campaign against narcotics and also called for stronger cooperation against illegal drugs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On January 17, 2019, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, on his state visit in the country, praised the war on drugs campaign, saying that the campaign is "an example to the whole world." Two days later, human rights groups had expressed alarm over the statement of Sirisena.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On May 27, 2020, a Human Rights Watch report showed the Impact of the “War on Drugs” in the Philippines. Children and thousands of people have been killed during anti-drug raids, which the authorities have called “collateral damage,” since President Rodrigo Duterte launched his “war on drugs” on June 30, 2016.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expressed concern over the drug-related killings in the country on October 13, 2016. In her statement, Bensouda said that the high officials of the country "seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage State forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force." She also warned that any person in the country who provokes "or engages in acts of mass violence by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, and in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of ICC" will be prosecuted before the court. About that, Duterte is open for the investigation by the ICC, Malacañang said.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In February 2018, the ICC announced a “preliminary examination” into killings linked to the Philippine government's “war on drugs”. Prosecutor Bensouda said the court will “analyze crimes allegedly committed in [the Philippines] since at least 1 July 2016.” Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque dismissed the ICC's decision as a “waste of the court’s time and resources”. In March, Duterte announced his intention to withdraw the Philippines from the ICC tribunal, which is a process that takes a year.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In August 2018, activists and eight families of victims of the drug war filed a second petition with the ICC, accusing Duterte of murder and crimes against humanity, and calling for his indictment for thousands of extrajudicial killings, which according to the 50-page complaint, included "brazen" executions by police acting with impunity. Neri Colmenares, a lawyer acting for the group, said that "Duterte is personally liable for ordering state police to undertake mass killings." Duterte threatened to arrest the ICC prosecutor Bensouda.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On June 19, 2018, 38 United Nations member states released a collective statement through the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), calling on the Philippines and President Duterte to stop the killings in the country and probe abuses caused by the drug war. The 38 nations included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On July 11, 2019, the UNHRC adopted an Iceland-proposed resolution calling on the council to look into the rising homicides related to the drug war and the human rights situation in the country. In response, President Rodrigo Duterte reacted to the resolution saying Iceland has no crime because its people "just go about eating ice" while Senators Vicente Sotto III and Imee Marcos said that countries who voted in favor of the resolution lacked the moral high ground due to abortion being legal in most of these countries.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Malacañang called the resolution "outrageous interference" in the sovereignty of the Philippines as it has no jurisdiction to do so. The Philippine government also said that Iceland may have been fed with inaccurate information about the Philippines’ war on drugs, as the former has no embassy in the Philippines.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Presidential Spokesperson called the resolution ”grotesquely one-sided, outrageously narrow, and maliciously partisan.” "It reeks of nauseating politics completely devoid of respect for the sovereignty of our country, even as it is bereft of the gruesome realities of the drug menace,” he added.


title: Philippine drug war

text: According to the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat (PHRCS) the government didn’t find the need for such a country-specific inquiry on the Philippines as there are so many existing mechanisms wherein the information in the country can be accessed.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Philippine government continues to subject itself to the universal periodic review every four years as well as different treaty bodies periodically. Despite the mechanisms that are already in place, Iceland resorted to such a move. “The position of the Philippine government is that we will not respect such a resolution, but we will continue engaging the UN through the different mechanisms which we already availed and always respected throughout the years. There was a certain sense of frustration because of the cases that were filed before the ICC without first going through the domestic remedies and the domestic channels, wherein remedies can be considered to be able to address these cases that were brought before the attention of the ICC. So the Philippine government thought it was very disrespectful and violative of the processes,” PHRCS Undersecretary Severo Catura said.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In June 2020, a report by the UN Human Rights Office condemned the Philippine president’s so-called “war on drugs” and stated that more than 8,000 people and at least 248 human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists have died over the past five years.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Two months after the UN revealed that the Philippine government’s policies related to its war on drugs have caused systematic violations including killings, arbitrary detentions, and vilification of dissent, the government introduced HRC Resolution No. 45.


title: Philippine drug war

text: There was no voting for the Resolution. It requested High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to provide support for the country in the continued fulfilment of its international human rights obligations and commitments.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Following the UN Report, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet called for the United Nations Human Rights Council to consider supporting new accountability measures against perpetrators of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines’ war on illegal drugs whilst also reiterating concerns over proposed new anti-terror legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 stating “The recent passage of the new Anti-Terrorism Act heightens our concerns about the blurring of important distinctions between criticism, criminality and terrorism, the law could have a further chilling effect on human rights and humanitarian work, hindering support to vulnerable and marginalized communities… So I would I urge the President to refrain from signing the law, and to initiate a broad-based consultation process to draft legislation that can effectively prevent and counter violent extremism, but which contains some safeguards to prevent its misuse against people engaged in peaceful criticism and advocacy." According to Ms. Bachelet’s office, the campaign against illegal drugs has been linked to the deaths of 73 children. These figures “are not exhaustive…the youngest victim was five months old,” the OHCHR report noted. Echoing these concerns, Ms. Bachelet underscored that the operation was being carried out “without due regard for the rule of law, due process and the human rights of people who may be using or selling drugs. The report finds that the killings have been widespread and systematic – and they are ongoing.” The High Commissioner also addressed long-running concerns of “near-impunity” for perpetrators of illegal killings during police operations highlighted in the report. It details how the Philippines Police Internal Affairs Service (IAS) automatically investigates any deaths that occur during police operations, and yet of more than 4,580 investigations, “the Government has cited only one case – that of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos – where three police officers were convicted of a drug campaign-related killing”. Ms. Bachelet added: “The State has an obligation to conduct independent investigations into the grave violations we have documented. In the absence of clear and measurable outcomes from domestic mechanisms, the Council should consider options for international accountability measures.”


title: Philippine drug war

text: Many observers have compared the mass killings of alleged users and dealers to a genocide, and the ICC has opened a case of crimes against humanity. Writing for the "Washington Post", Maia Szalavitz argued that the campaign has not had much blowback because drug users are seen by many as worthless members of society and therefore easy targets. In his book "Dopeworld", author Niko Vorobyov has compared the drug war to the stages of annihilation outlined by Raul Hilberg to the Holocaust:


title: Philippine drug war

text: Duterte has himself likened his actions to Hitler. At a press conference on September 30, 2016, Duterte appeared to make a comparison between the drug war and the Holocaust. He said that "Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them." His remarks generated an international outcry. United States Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the statement was "deeply troubling." The German government told the Philippine ambassador that Duterte's remarks were "unacceptable." On October 2, Duterte announced, "I apologize profoundly and deeply to the Jewish." He explained, "It's not really that I said something wrong but rather they don't really want you to tinker with the memory."


title: Philippine drug war

text: In 2016, director Brillante Mendoza filmed "Ma' Rosa", which follows the story of a mother who sells the local methamphetamine. The film's main actress, Jaclyn Jose, won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival of the same year. In 2018, Mendoza filmed "Alpha: The Right to Kill", which follows similar themes of poverty, drugs, and corruption in the police force. In the same year, Netflix aired its first series from the Philippines entitled "AMO", also made by Mendoza.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The long-running action drama series "Ang Probinsyano" has also tackled the issue in its storyline. The show's portrayal of the PNP and its handling of the drug war, however, was criticized by the PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde because of its alleged negative portrayal. The PNP at one point also withdrew its support for the show and threatened legal action if the show's story was not changed. Netizens, politicians, artists and others, on the other hand, defended the show's depiction of the police force and of the drug war.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In 2018, Alyx Ayn Arumpac filmed the documentary "Aswang", which frames events related to the drug war, trailing journalists and interviewing left-behinds of the victims. It premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in the Netherlands.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Also in 2018, the action film "BuyBust" was released which similarly tackled the subject of the drug war. The film was released imternationally and was an entry to the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In 2019, a multi-award-winning joint production by PBS and the BBC, "On The President's Orders" highlights the war on drugs in the Philippines. Produced and directed by two-time Emmy Award-winning and five-time BAFTA-nominated director James Jones, also filmed and directed by Emmy Award-winner for cinematography Olivier Sarbil.


title: Philippine drug war

text: "Hustisya" is a rap song about the drug war which was created by local artists inspired by the death of their friend immortalized in a photograph often compared to Michelangelo's "Pieta".


title: Philippine drug war

text: In December 2016, American singer James Taylor posted on social media that he had canceled his concert in Manila, which was set for February 2017, citing the increasing number of deaths related to the drug war.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The 2017 song "Manila Ice", by musician Eyedress, and its music video depict violence and corruption and were created as a response to the drug war.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In May 2019, PDEA called for a ban on rapper Shanti Dope's song "Amatz" for allegedly promoting marijuana use, which is illegal in the Philippines. The Concerned Artists of the Philippines criticized the PDEA for the attempt to suppress freedom of expression. In June 2019, the National Telecommunications Commission ordered the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (Association of Broadcasters of the Philippines) to stop the airing of the song.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The 2019 rap album "Kolateral" tells the story of the Philippine drug war through the eyes of the drug war's victims. The album features 12 songs by artists BLKD (pronounced Balakid), Calix, and others.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On December 10, 2019, Irish musician Bono of U2 sent a message to Duterte during his visit to Manila for concert tour, saying that he "can’t compromise on human rights." In a press conference, Bono said that he had been a member of Amnesty International and he is "critical" when it comes to human rights. During the U2's concert, the band paid tribute to important women in the history such as late president Corazon Aquino and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa by flashing the images on the large screen.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On April 11, 2017, "The New York Times" won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography on their Philippine drug war report. The story was published on December 7, 2016, and was titled ""They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals.""


title: Philippine drug war

text: "La Pieta" or the "Philippines "Pieta,"" named after the sculpture by Michelangelo, refers to the photograph of Jennilyn Olayres holding the corpse of Michael Siaron, who was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pasay, Metro Manila, on July 23, 2016. A piece of cardboard with the words ""Wag tularan si Siaron dahil pusher umano"" was placed on his body. The image was widely used in the national press. Malacañang alleged that the killing was committed by drug syndicates themselves. One year and three months after Siaron was killed, the police identified the suspected assailant as Nesty Santiago through a ballistic exam on the recovered firearm. Santiago was allegedly a member of a syndicate involved in robberies, car thefts, hired killings and illegal drugs. The Pasay city police declared Siaron's death as "case closed" since Santiago was also killed by riding-in-tandem on December 29, 2016. No further investigation was made.


title: Philippine drug war

text: A photo of a body of an alleged drug dealer, killed during a police anti-drug operation, in Manila by Noel Celis has been selected as one of "Time" magazine's top 100 photos of 2017.


title: Philippine drug war

text: There are various mobile games featuring Duterte fighting criminals, many of which have since been removed by Apple Inc. from their App Store following an appeal by various regional organizations.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In 2016, a group of artists exhibited "Everyday Impunity: Ang Mga Walang Pangalan" during Art Fair Philippines. It was curated by Erwin Romulo, with photography by Carlo Gabuco, music by Juan Miguel Sobrepeña, sound system design by Mark Laccay, and lighting design by Lyle Sacris. The exhibit reveals a wall of photographs by Gabuco, taken from his coverage of the Philippine drug war. Central to the exhibit space is a blue sofa, which is revealed to be from the crime scene where a drug suspect was supposedly shot. The spectator is invited to sit and to hear the suspect's daughter, who talks about her father and their life in Payatas.


title: Philippine drug war

text: A work of muralist Archie Oclos is also attributed to the Philippine drug war. His work entitled "Ang Mamatay nang Dahil sa Iyo" at the Cultural Center of the Philippines shows a dead body wrapped in a blanket. The work consists of 20,000 black ink strokes, roughly the estimated number of drug war casualties.


title: Philippine drug war

text: An anthology of poems, "Bloodlust: Philippine Protest Poetry (From Marcos to Duterte)", was published in 2017. Edited by Alfred Yuzon and Gemino Abad, the book contains works by 65 Filipino poets writing about dictatorship, mass killings, and related subjects.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Reuters also covered the war on drugs with their 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning special report, "Duterte's War", by Clare Baldwin, Andrew Marshall, and Manuel Mogato.


title: Vince Papale

text: Vincent Papale (born February 9, 1946) is a former American football wide receiver. He played three seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League, primarily on special teams, following two seasons with the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League. Papale's story was the inspiration behind the 2006 film "Invincible".


title: Vince Papale

text: Papale was born in Glenolden, Pennsylvania, attended Interboro High School in Prospect Park and lettered in football, basketball, and track and field. In his only year of varsity football, Papale won All-Delaware County Honorable Mention honors. In track, he was a standout pole vaulter, triple jumper, and long jumper. He began competing in track during his senior year at Interboro. He won the District I (Philadelphia suburban area) large-schools championship in pole vault, then finished fourth in the state meet. Papale's best pole vault that year was 12 ft 9 in (3.886 m), which edged him into the top 10 all-time PA high school vaulters.


title: Vince Papale

text: Papale attended Philadelphia's Saint Joseph's University on a track scholarship (the university did not have a football team). As a junior, he won a United States Track & Field Federation (USTFF) college development pole vault at Madison Square Garden (February 10) with a vault of 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m). He never placed at IC4A or Penn Relays. Papale did score in the Middle Atlantic Conference championships. He graduated in 1968 with an MS degree in Marketing/Management Science.


title: Vince Papale

text: Vince Papale's post-collegiate football career began with the Aston Green Knights of the semi-pro Seaboard Football League. At that time, Papale was a teacher at Interboro High School and was coaching the junior varsity football team when he successfully tried out for the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League as a wide receiver. In an ESPN documentary, Papale claimed he lied about his age to join the team (claiming to be 24 years old, when in fact he was 28 at the time.) In his first season with the Bell, Papale caught nine passes for 121 yards, averaging 13.4 yards per catch including catching the first pass in the history of the new league. In 1975 Papale caught only one pass, but it was for a forty-nine yard touchdown. In both seasons with the team, Papale was a special teams standout.


title: Vince Papale

text: His performance with the Philadelphia Bell earned him a meeting in 1976 with head coach Dick Vermeil of the Philadelphia Eagles after general manager Jim Murray got him an invitation to a private workout held by Coach Vermeil.


title: Vince Papale

text: Papale eventually made the team, thereby becoming, at age 30, the oldest rookie non-kicker in the history of the NFL to play without the benefit of college football experience. He went on to play wide receiver and special teams for the Eagles from 1976 through 1978. During that time, he played in 41 of 44 regular season games (regular seasons being 14 games in 1976–1977 and 16 games in 1978) recording two fumble recoveries and one 15-yard reception. He was voted Special Teams Captain by his teammates and "Man of the Year" by the Eagles in 1978 for his many charitable activities. A shoulder injury ended his career in 1979. After retiring from the NFL, he worked as a TV and radio broadcaster for eight years, then became a commercial mortgage banker.


title: Vince Papale

text: Papale, who earned the nickname "Rocky" (after the Sylvester Stallone character) while playing with the Eagles, is the subject of the Disney movie "Invincible", with Mark Wahlberg portraying him. In addition, Papale's legend was cited as a factor in the Eagles' signing of construction foreman/tight end Jeff Thomason for 2005's Super Bowl XXXIX.


title: Vince Papale

text: Diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2001, Papale has recovered from the disease, to become a spokesman encouraging people to get regular check-ups. He has appeared in commercials for Thomas Jefferson University Hospital encouraging others to be tested. Papale is a sought after motivational speaker.


title: Vince Papale

text: Previously, Papale was the regional director of marketing and senior account executive for higher-education marketing at Sallie Mae. He resides in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, with his wife Janet and two children, Gabriella and Vinny, and remains a diehard Philadelphia Eagles football fan. He is also currently listed as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Philadelphia Chapter of the NFL Alumni Association. His son Vinny played wide receiver for the University of Delaware Blue Hens and currently is with the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Repo Man is a 1984 American science fiction black comedy film written and directed by Alex Cox in his directorial debut. It stars Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez, with Tracey Walter, Olivia Barash, Sy Richardson, Vonetta McGee, Fox Harris, and Dick Rude among the supporting cast. Set in Los Angeles, the plot concerns a young punk rocker (Estevez) who is recruited by a car repossession agency and gets caught up in the pursuit of a mysterious Chevrolet Malibu that might be connected to extraterrestrials.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: A satire of America under the Reagan administration, consumerism and the Atomic Age, "Repo Man" was developed by Cox in partnership with his fellow film school graduates from UCLA, independent producers Jonathan Wacks and Peter McCarthy. His inspiration for the film came from his own experiences working with repossession agent Mark Lewis. Originally conceiving of it as a road movie, Cox reconfigured the story to take place mostly in Los Angeles to maintain its budget. Michael Nesmith of The Monkees came on board the project as an executive producer, and secured a negative pickup deal with Universal Pictures. Principal photography ran through summer 1983, during which Cox encouraged improvisation from the cast; the film's ending notably differed from what had originally been written. The soundtrack, headlined by a main theme composed and performed by Iggy Pop, is noted as a snapshot of 1980s hardcore punk; Cox wanted the music to underscore the life of repo men.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Despite a troubled initial release due to Universal's skepticism towards the film's commercial viability, "Repo Man" received widespread acclaim, and was deemed by critics to be one of the best films of 1984. It has since gained a cult following, particularly surrounding Cox's re-edited version of the film for television due to its deliberate inclusion of surreal overdubs to replace profanity. A stand-alone sequel based on an unproduced screenplay by Cox, "Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday", was published as a graphic novel in 2008, while a spiritual successor, "Repo Chick", was released in 2009.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: In the Mojave Desert, a policeman pulls over a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu driven by J. Frank Parnell. The policeman opens the trunk, sees a blinding flash of white light, and is instantly vaporized, leaving only his boots behind.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Otto Maddox, a young punk rocker in L.A., is fired from his job as a supermarket stock clerk. His girlfriend leaves him for his best friend. Depressed and broke, Otto is wandering the streets when Bud drives up and offers him $25 to drive a car out of the neighborhood, supposedly for his wife.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Otto follows Bud in the car to the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation, where he learns the car he drove was being repossessed. He refuses to join Bud as a "repo man," and goes to his parents'. He learns that his burned-out ex-hippie parents have donated the money that they promised him as a reward for graduating from high school to a televangelist. He decides to take the repo job.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: After repossessing a flashy red Cadillac, Otto sees Leila running down the street. He gives her a ride to her workplace, the United Fruitcake Outlet. On the way, she shows him pictures of aliens that she says are in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu. She says they are dangerous due to the radiation they emit. Meanwhile, Helping Hand is offered a $20,000 bounty notice for the Malibu. Most assume that the repossession is drug-related because the bounty is far above the actual value of the car.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Parnell arrives in L.A. driving the Malibu, but he is unable to meet his waiting UFO compatriots because of a team of government agents led by a woman with a metal hand. When Parnell pulls into a gas station, Helping Hand's competitors, the Rodriguez brothers, take the Malibu. They stop for sodas because the car's trunk is hot. While they are out of the car a trio of Otto's punk friends, who are on a crime spree, steal it.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: After visiting a nightclub, Parnell appears and tricks the punks into opening the trunk, killing one of them and scaring the other two away. Later, he picks up Otto and drives aimlessly, before collapsing and dying from radiation. After surviving a convenience store shootout with the punks that leaves Bud wounded and punk Duke dead, Otto takes the Malibu back to Helping Hand and leaves it in the lot. The car is stolen again, and a chase ensues. By this time, the car is glowing bright green.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Eventually, the Malibu reappears at the Helping Hand lot with Bud behind the wheel, but he ends up being shot. The various groups trying to acquire the car soon show up; government agents, the UFO scientists, and the televangelist. Anyone who approaches it bursts into flames, even those in flame-retardant suits.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Only Miller, an eccentric mechanic at Helping Hand who had explained earlier to Otto that aliens exist and can travel through time in their spaceships, is able to enter the car. He slides behind the wheel and beckons Otto into the Malibu. After Otto settles into the passenger seat, it lifts straight up into the air and flies away, first through the city's skyline and later into space.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: "Repo Man" garnered widespread praise upon its release, and is widely considered to be one of the best films of 1984. In 2008, the film was voted by a group of "Los Angeles Times" writers and editors as the eighth-best film set in Los Angeles in the last 25 years. "Entertainment Weekly" ranked the film seventh on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films".


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Neil Gaiman reviewed "Repo Man" for "Imagine" magazine, and stated that "one of last year's cult movie successes was "Repo Man" [...] and it's not hard to see why. A lobotomised nuclear scientist is driving around Los Angeles in a car with something in the boot. Dead extraterrestrials, a neutron bomb or something even more bizarre?"


title: Repo Man (film)

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 98% approval rating based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Repo Man" is many things: an alien-invasion film, a punk-rock musical, a send-up of consumerism. One thing it isn't is boring." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 82 based on 21 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim", and was given the "Must-See" badge.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: The soundtrack features songs by various punk rock bands such as The Plugz, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, Iggy Pop and others. The film score was created by Tito Larriva, Steven Hufsteter, Charlie Quintana and Tony Marsico of The Plugz. Iggy Pop volunteered to write the title song after his manager viewed a screening of the film.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: Chris Bones saw the script on Cox's website and asked, and received, permission to adapt the script into a graphic novel. The book, "Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday", was released in March 2008 by Gestalt Publishing.


title: Repo Man (film)

text: On December 3, 2008, a sequel was reported to be going into development with the working title "Repo Chick". The story would be set in 2008 and the resulting boom in repossession that extends far beyond cars and homes. On February 13, 2009, Cox announced on his blog that shooting had finished and the film was in post-production. The bulk of the film was shot in front of a green screen, with backgrounds filmed and composited-in during post-production.


title: Waymo

text: Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google.


title: Waymo

text: Waymo operates a commercial self-driving taxi service in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area. In October 2020, the company expanded the service to the public, and it was the only self-driving commercial service that operates without safety backup drivers in the vehicle at that time. Waymo also develops driving technology for use in other vehicles, including delivery vans and Class 8 tractor-trailers for delivery and logistics.


title: Waymo

text: Waymo is run by co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov. The company has raised $5.5 billion in multiple outside funding rounds. Waymo has partnerships with multiple vehicle manufacturers to integrate Waymo's technology, including with Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Nissan-Renault, Stellantis, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo.


title: Waymo

text: Google's development of self-driving technology began on January 17, 2009, at the company's secretive Google X lab run by co-founder Sergey Brin. The project was launched by Sebastian Thrun, the former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) and Anthony Levandowski, founder of 510 Systems and Anthony's Robots.


title: Waymo

text: Before working at Google, Thrun and 15 engineers, including Dmitri Dolgov, Anthony Levandowski, and Mike Montemerlo worked together on a digital mapping technology project for SAIL called VueTool. Many of the team members had met at the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge where both Thrun and Levandowski had teams competing in the robotic, self-driving car challenge. In 2007, Google acqui-hired the entire VueTool team to help advance Google's Street View technology.


title: Waymo

text: As part of Street View's development, 100 Toyota Priuses were purchased and outfitted with the Topcon box, digital mapping hardware developed by Levandowski's company 510 Systems.


title: Waymo

text: In 2008, the Street View team launched project Ground Truth, to create accurate road maps by extracting data from satellites and street views. This laid the groundwork for the Google's self-driving car program.


title: Waymo

text: In February 2008, a Discovery Channel producer for the documentary series "Prototype This!" called Levandowski. The producer requested to borrow Levandowski's Ghost Rider, the autonomous two-wheeled motocycle Levandowski's Berkeley team had built for the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge. However, in 2007, Levandowski had donated the self-driving bike to the Smithsonian. Since the motorcycle was not available, Levandowski offered to retrofit a Toyota Prius as a self-driving pizza delivery car for the show.


title: Waymo

text: As a Google employee, Levandowski asked Larry Page and Sebastian Thrun, if Google was interested in participating in the show. Both declined, citing liability issues. However, they authorized Levandowski to move forward with building the car, given it was clear that it was not associated with Google. Within weeks Levandowski founded Anthony's Robots so that he and his team could modify a Toyota Prius without reference to Google. He retrofitted the car with light detection and ranging technology (LiDAR), sensors, cameras, and software from his company 510 Systems and named the prototype, the Pribot. The Pribot was the first self-driving car to drive on public roads. The episode featuring Pribot driving itself and the pizza across the San Francisco Bay Bridge under police escort aired in December 2008.


title: Waymo

text: After the broad press coverage of the Pribot, Levandowski and Thrun were greenlit to launch Google's self-driving car program in January 2009. In 2011, Google quietly acquired Levandowski's technology - the nucleus of Google's self-driving car project, via his two companies, 510 Systems, co-founded alongside Pierre-Yves Droz and Andrew Schultz, and Anthony's Robots for an estimated $20 million.


title: Waymo

text: Project Chauffeur ran for almost two years undetected, road testing with seven vehicles before the "New York Times" revealed their existence on October 9, 2010. Google announced its self-driving car initiative via its blog later the same day.


title: Waymo

text: Starting in 2010, lawmakers in various states expressed concerns over how to regulate the emerging technology. Nevada passed a law in June 2011 concerning the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada, which went into effect on March 1, 2012. Google had been lobbying for driverless car laws. A Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology was licensed by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in May 2012. The car was "driven" by Chris Urmson with Anthony Levandowski in the passengers seat. This was the first license issued in the United States for a self-driven car.


title: Waymo

text: In late May 2014, Google revealed a new prototype of its driverless car, which had no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal, being 100% autonomous. In December, they unveiled a fully functioning prototype that they planned to test on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in early 2015. Called the Firefly, the car was intended to serve as a platform for experimentation and learning, not mass production.


title: Waymo

text: In 2015, co-founder Anthony Levandowski left the project. In August 2015, Google hired former Hyundai Motor executive, John Krafcik, as CEO. In fall 2015, Google provided "the world's first fully driverless ride on public roads" to a legally blind friend of principal engineer Nathaniel Fairfield. The ride was taken by Steve Mahan, former CEO of the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center, in Austin, Texas. It was the first entirely driverless drive on a public road. It was not accompanied by a test driver or police escort. The car had no steering wheel or floor pedals. By the end of 2015, Project Chauffeur had driven more than a million self-driven miles.


title: Waymo

text: In December 2016, the project was renamed Waymo and became a new start-up company that is part of Alphabet. The name Waymo was derived from its mission, "a new way forward in mobility." Waymo underwent further test on its cars on public roads after its separation from Google.


title: Waymo

text: In 2017, Waymo sued Uber for allegedly stealing trade secrets. A court document revealed Google had spent $1.1 billion on the project between 2009 and 2015. For comparison, the acquisition of Cruise Automation by General Motors in March 2016 was reported at just over $500 million, and Uber's acquisition of Otto in August 2016 was for $680 million. Waymo began testing autonomous minivans without a safety driver on public roads in Chandler, Arizona, in October 2017.


title: Waymo

text: In April 2019, Waymo announced plans for vehicle assembly in Detroit at the former American Axle & Manufacturing plant, bringing between 100 and 400 jobs to the area. Waymo will use vehicle assembler Magna to turn Jaguar I-PACE and Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans into Waymo Level 4 autonomous vehicles. Waymo subsequently decided to continue retrofitting existing car models rather than manufacturing a new design like the Firefly.


title: Waymo

text: In March 2020, Waymo Via was launched after the company's announcement that it had raised $2.25 billion from a group of investors. In May 2020, Waymo raised an additional $750 million, bringing their total outside investment to $3 billion. In July 2020, the company announced an exclusive partnership with auto manufacturer Volvo to integrate Waymo's self-driving technology into Volvo's vehicles. In April 2021, John Krafcik stepped down as CEO and was replaced by two co-CEOs: Waymo's COO Tekedra Mawakana and CTO Dmitri Dolgov. Waymo raised $2.5 billion in a second funding round in June 2021, with a total funding of $5.5 billion.


title: Waymo

text: In May 2022, Waymo launched its Waymo One Trusted Tester program for residents in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona, following internal testing with employees. The research-focused initiative asks participants to share feedback during their rides, similar to the program previously launched in San Francisco in August 2021. In May 2022, Waymo announced that it would be expanding the program to more areas of Phoenix. Plans to expand the program to Bellevue, Washington and Los Angeles were announced in late 2022.


title: Waymo

text: In June 2022, Waymo announced a partnership with Uber, under which the former will integrate its autonomous technology into Uber's freight truck service.


title: Waymo

text: On December 13, 2022 it was reported that Waymo had applied for the final permit necessary to operate fully autonomous taxis, without a backup driver present, within the state of California.


title: Waymo

text: In 2017, Waymo unveiled new sensors and chips that are less expensive to manufacture, cameras that improve visibility, and wipers to clear the lidar system. Waymo manufactures a suite of self-driving hardware developed in-house. These sensors and hardware-enhanced vision system, improved radar, and laser-based lidar—reduce Waymo's dependence on suppliers. The in-house production system allows Waymo to integrate its technology to the hardware efficiently. At the beginning of the self-driving car program, the company spent $75,000 for each lidar system from Velodyne. In 2017, the cost decreased approximately 90 percent, with Waymo designing its own version of lidar.


title: Waymo

text: Waymo officials said the cars the company uses are built for full autonomy with sensors that give 360-degree views and lasers that detect objects up to 300 meters away. Short-range lasers detect and focus on objects near the vehicle, while radar is used to see around vehicles and track objects in motion. The interior of these cars includes buttons for riders to control certain functions: "help," "lock," "pull over," and "start ride."


title: Waymo

text: Waymo engineers have also created a program called Carcraft, a virtual world where Waymo can simulate driving conditions. The simulator was named after the video game "World of Warcraft". With Carcraft, 25,000 virtual self-driving cars navigate through models of Austin, Texas, Mountain View, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and other cities. , Waymo has driven more than 5 billion miles in the virtual world.


title: Waymo

text: Waymo has created partnerships with Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Lyft, AutoNation, Avis, Intel, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo.


title: Waymo

text: The Waymo project team has equipped various types of cars with the self-driving equipment, including the Toyota Prius, Audi TT, Fiat Chrysler Pacifica, and Lexus RX450h. Google also developed a custom vehicle, approximately 100 of which were assembled by Roush Enterprises with equipment from Bosch, ZF Lenksysteme, LG, and Continental.


title: Waymo

text: In May 2016, Google and Stellantis announced an order of 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans to test the self-driving technology. Waymo ordered an additional 500 Pacifica hybrids in 2017, and in late May 2018, Alphabet announced plans to add up to 62,000 Pacifica Hybrid minivans to the fleet. In March 2018, Jaguar Land Rover announced that Waymo had ordered up to 20,000 of its planned electric I-Pace cars at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion. Jaguar is to deliver the first I-Pace prototype later in the year, and the cars are to become part of Waymo's ride-hailing service in 2020.


title: Waymo

text: Waymo partnered with Intel to use Intel technologies, such as processors, inside Waymo vehicles. It has deals with Avis and AutoNation for vehicle maintenance. With Lyft, Waymo is partnering on pilot projects and product development.


title: Waymo

text: China's Geely Holding said its premium electric mobility brand, Zeekr, will make electric vehicles for Waymo, Alphabet Inc's self-driving unit, to be deployed as fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicles across the United States.


title: Waymo

text: In 2009, Google began testing its self-driving cars in the San Francisco Bay Area. Google's vehicles have traversed San Francisco's Lombard Street, famed for its steep hairpin turns, and through city traffic. The cars have driven over the Golden Gate Bridge and around Lake Tahoe. The system operates at the speed limit it has stored on its maps and maintains its distance from other vehicles using its system of sensors.


title: Waymo

text: By December 2013, four U.S. states had passed laws permitting autonomous cars: Nevada, Florida, California, and Michigan. A law proposed in Texas would also allow testing of, "autonomous motor vehicles".


title: Waymo

text: In April 2014, the team announced that their vehicles had logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles (1.1 million km). In June 2015, the team announced that their vehicles had driven over , stating that this was "the equivalent of 75 years of typical U.S. adult driving", and that in the process they had encountered 200,000 stop signs, 600,000 traffic lights, and 180 million other vehicles. Google also announced its prototype vehicles were being road tested in Mountain View, California. During testing, the prototypes' speed did not exceed and had safety drivers aboard. As a consequence, one of the vehicles was stopped by police for impeding traffic flow.


title: Waymo

text: In 2015, Google expanded its road-testing to Texas, where regulations did not prohibit cars without pedals and a steering wheel. Bills were introduced by interested parties to similarly change the legislation in California.


title: Waymo

text: Google took its first driverless ride on public roads in October 2015, when Mahan took a 10-minute solo ride around Austin in a Google "pod car" with no steering wheel or pedals. In 2016, the company expanded its road testing to the dry Phoenix, Arizona, area, and Kirkland, Washington, which has a wet climate. In May 2016, the company opened a 53,000 square foot self-driving technology development center in Novi, Michigan. , Google had test driven its fleet of vehicles, in autonomous mode, a total of . In August 2016 alone, their cars traveled a "total of 170,000 miles; of those, 126,000 miles were autonomous (i.e., the car was fully in control)".


title: Waymo

text: Beginning of 2017, Waymo reported to California DMV a total of 636,868 miles covered by the fleet in autonomous mode, and the associated 124 disengagements, for the period from December 1, 2015, through November 30, 2016.


title: Waymo

text: In November 2017, Waymo altered its Arizona testing by removing safety drivers in the driver position from their autonomous Chrysler Pacificas. The cars were geofenced within a 100 square mile region surrounding Chandler, Arizona. Waymo's early rider program members were the first to take rides using the new technology.


title: Waymo

text: Waymo began testing its level 4 autonomous cars in Arizona for several reasons: good weather, simple roads, and reasonable autonomous vehicle laws. Users hail vehicles through the Waymo app. They also have access to an onboard support system that can connect riders to a Waymo agent. In 2017, Waymo began weather testing in Michigan. Also, in 2017, Waymo unveiled its test facility, Castle, on 91 acres in Central Valley, California. Castle, a former airbase, has served as the project's training course since 2012.


title: Waymo

text: According to a Waymo report, as of March 2018, Waymo's self-driving technology had driven more than 5 million miles on public roads and more than 5 billion miles via simulation. Waymo's 25,000 virtual self-driving cars travel 8 million miles per day. By October 2018, Waymo had completed 10 million miles of driving on public roads and over 7 billion simulation miles, and by January 2020, 20 million miles of driving on public roads had been completed.


title: Waymo

text: By 2018, Waymo had tested its system in six states and 25 cities across the U.S over a span of nine years. In March 2018, Waymo announced its plans to build additional real-world self-driving experiments with the company's self-driving trucks delivering for sister company Google's data centers located in Atlanta, Georgia.


title: Waymo

text: , Waymo was waiting for permits to test the cars in California, hoping to test in Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale. On October 30, 2018, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued a permit for Waymo to operate fully driverless cars (i.e., cars without human safety drivers). Waymo was the first company to receive a permit, that allows day and night testing on public roads and highways in California. In a blog post, Waymo announced that its fully driverless cars would be restricted to Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, and Palo Alto — all communities close to parent company Alphabet's headquarters (Googleplex). In July 2019, Waymo was permitted by California regulators to transport passengers in its vehicles.


title: Waymo

text: In December 2018, Waymo launched the commercial self-driving car service called "Waymo One", allowing users in the Phoenix metropolitan area to use an app and request a pick-up. The service uses safety backup drivers who monitor the rides, with a smaller percentage of rides being provided in select areas by fully driverless vehicles. In November 2019, Waymo One was the first autonomous service worldwide operating without any safety drivers in the car. The service was paused in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a limited service restarted in June 2020. In September 2020, Waymo announced it had partnered with fellow Alphabet company Verily to provide COVID-19 testing to its front-line employees and partners.


title: Waymo

text: In 2021, Waymo expanded testing of Waymo One to San Francisco. In February 2021 the company started limited rider testing in San Francisco with Waymo employee volunteers.


title: Waymo

text: In August 2021, commercial Waymo One test service started in the city, beginning with a "trusted tester" rollout.


title: Waymo

text: In March 2022, Waymo said that they will begin offering rides in San Francisco without a driver. The driverless rides will be available only for Waymo staff to start.


title: Waymo

text: In June 2015, Google confirmed the occurrence of 12 collisions. By July 2015, Google's 23 self-driving cars have been involved in 14 minor collisions on public roads. On February 14, 2016, while creeping forward to a stoplight, a Google self-driving car attempted to avoid sandbags blocking its path. During the maneuver, it struck the side of a bus. Google addressed the crash, saying, "In this case, we clearly bear some responsibility because if our car hadn't moved there wouldn't have been a collision." Some incomplete video footage of the crash is available. Google characterized the crash as a misunderstanding and a learning experience. The company also stated, "This type of misunderstanding happens between human drivers on the road every day." Google maintained that, in all cases other than the February 2016 incident, the vehicle itself was not at fault because the cars were either being manually driven or the driver of another vehicle was at fault.