Horrific pictures: 300 dead in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s national drug crackdown

PHILIPPINE President Duterte called on citizens to kill drug users and dealers. Here are the horrific results. Warning: GRAPHIC

Two women weep over the body of an alleged drug peddler shot in a main thoroughfare in Manila. Picture: Getty Images

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

RODRIGO “The Punisher” Duterte vowed to eliminate drug crime via state sanctioned murder and he’s fulfilling that promise with chilling efficiency.

The official death toll since the Philippine president’s call on authorities and citizens last month to kill drug users and dealers on sight is almost 300 but the true figure is certain to be higher.

The victims nobody reported missing, or cared enough about to identify, are unlikely to have made anyone’s list.

Now the horrific results of Duterte’s crackdown have been illustrated in an extraordinary series of photographs by Getty Images.

According to police data, 293 suspected users and pushers were killed during police operations between July 1 and July 24. Human rights groups say this figure does not include countless people murdered by vigilantes in street executions.

Like many others, this alleged drug dealer was found executed with his hands bound and his head wrapped in tape. Picture: Getty Images

An alleged drug dealer, executed with hands bound and his head wrapped in tape, lies on a road behind police tape in Manila. Picture: Getty Images

There have been many reports of accused drug users and pushers being executed and left on streets with cardboard signs allegedly “admitting” their guilt.

Not that this worries Duterte — as far as he is concerned everything is going to plan.

“Double your efforts. Triple them if need be,” he said in a message to police.

“We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier and the last pusher have surrendered or been put behind bars ... or below ground if you wish.”

Police examine the body of an alleged drug dealer at a Manila market. Picture: Getty Images

An alleged drug dealer lies dead in a Manila street next to a cardboard sign carrying his ‘confession’. Picture: Getty Images

During his presidential campaign, the 71-year-old vowed to kill more than 100,000 alleged criminals and dump their bodies in Manila Bay within six months of taking office (he was inaugurated on June 30).

Since Duterte’s win, a wave of executions of alleged criminals, carried out both by vigilantes and the police, has swept the country.

An alleged drug dealer and victim of a summary execution lies dead on a main throughfare in Manila. The victim was an alleged drug peddler, a claim disputed by his wife, who maintained her husband was nothing more than a pedicab driver plying his trade when he was shot in front of her. Picture: Getty Images

Police guard the body of an alleged drug dealer killed in a shootout with swat teams during a drug raid on July 21 in Manila. Picture: Getty Images

In his national address last month, Mr Duterte told the crowd that the Philippines was drowning in drugs and urged police and civilians alike to take matters into their own hands by shooting suspects themselves.

He promised to pay huge bounties in exchange for every person killed who had connections to the drug trade. The higher the target’s rank, the bigger the reward.

The pay scale looks something like this: Three million pesos (around $A85,000) for every “drug lord”, two million pesos ($A56,000) for those in charge of distribution, one million pesos ($A28,000) for “syndicate members” and 50,000 pesos ($A1400) for every “ordinary” drug peddler killed.

A woman embraces her dead husband, a suspected drug dealer, after he was shot by motorcycle riding vigilantes in Manila. Picture: Getty Images

Like many others, this alleged drug dealer was found executed with his hands bound and his head wrapped in tape. Picture: Getty Images

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Zeid al-Hussein, has appealed to Duterte to end the murderous crackdown.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Pabillo said there is no proof the victims were engaged in drug trafficking.

“No one told us that, aside from the cardboards placed on top of them,” he said.

“Can we correct evil by doing evil?”

An alleged drug dealer, his hands bound and his head wrapped in tape, lies in the foreground after being shot dead in a Manila street. Picture: Getty Images

Forensic officers remove the body of an alleged drug dealer in Manila. Picture: Getty Images

An opinion poll taken late in June showed that 63 per cent of Filipinos believe that Duterte will make good on most, if not all, of his promises to stamp out criminality, corruption and illegal drugs.

Funeral workers transport bodies of alleged drug dealers and victims of summary executions inside a Manila funeral parlour. Picture: Getty Images