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2017 Breaking News
Philippine Drug War
Daniel Berehulak
Freeland
Oct. 9, 2016, the Philippines
President Rodrigo Duterte rose to power in the Philippines in 2016 on a promise to kill 100,000 criminals and dump their bodies in Manila Bay to "fatten all the fish there." In the months that followed, thousands of people, including innocent victims, were gunned down in the streets by police and armed vigilantes.
Freelance photographer Daniel Berehulak covered the story for The New York Times. Over 35 days, he photographed 57 murder victims in Manila, the capital. Berehulak's photos exposed the gruesome realities of the government's war on drugs: bodies lying on trash heaps, stacked like firewood in a morgue or with their heads wrapped in packing tape alongside cardboard signs labeling them drug addicts or dealers. "They are slaughtering us like animals," a bystander said.
At one man's wake, his 6-hear-old daughter screamed "Papa" as his coffin was removed. "These aren't bodies," said Berehulak. "These are family members, these are husbands, these are fathers. What I was trying to do was to give these people a face and a name." |