From 1998 to 2015, the number of victims of “summary executions” in Davao City reached 1,424, according to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which compiled reports during that period.
Because most of the victims had criminal records, the murders were blamed on a vigilante group, known as the Davao Death Squad (DDS), according to the CBCP.
In the late 1990s, the killers rode on motorcycles and gunned down their victims, most of whom were suspected to be gangsters and illegal drug peddlers. In recent years, the killings were done by stabbing, according to the prelates.
In 2009, President Duterte, then the city mayor, found himself in the middle of a Commission on Human Rights inquiry into the spate of vigilante-style killings in the city.
But Mr. Duterte denied that DDS was operating in the city and blamed the killings on gang wars, rivalries in the illegal drug trade and personal grudges.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in its 2009 report “You Can Die Anytime: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao,” said Mr. Duterte’s “open endorsement of summary killings to fight criminals and his soaring popularity had encouraged other cities.”
HRW said it had documented the existence of the DDS and Mr. Duterte’s role in the killings as early as 2009, but Mr. Duterte had never been charged. —INQUIRER RESEARCH