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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent

Duterte drug war back in ICC spotlight after parliamentary committee hears claims his office paid police $17,000 to kill suspects

Relatives of victims of alleged extrajudicial killings from the drug war campaign hold candles during a gathering inside a church in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines in April 2024.
Relatives of victims of alleged extrajudicial killings from the drug war campaign hold candles during a gathering inside a church in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines in April 2024. Photograph: Francis R Malasig/EPA

A Philippines former police colonel has testified that Rodrigo Duterte’s office offered police up to $17,000 to kill suspects as part of his “war on drugs”, sparking calls for the evidence to be referred to the international criminal court.

Royina Garma, a former police colonel who had close ties to Duterte, gave the most damning evidence yet against the former president, when she told a parliamentary committee last week he had called her in May 2016, asking her to find a police officer capable of implementing a nationwide “war on drugs”.

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