As the corpses mount, undertakers in the Philippines struggle to cope with Duterte’s deadly drug war
Funeral parlours, while busy, are not necessarily making lots of money, with relatives of many victims often too poor to be able to pay
Business has never been busier for undertaker Alejandro Ormeneta but, after five months on the front lines of the Philippines’ brutal drug war, he just wants the killings to stop.
Watch: A close-up view of Duterte’s war on drugs
This shouldn’t happen, they are people, not animals
“This shouldn’t happen, they are people, not animals,” Ormeneta, 47, told AFP as he recalled taking out three nails hammered into the skull of an alleged drug trafficker. “I think he was still alive when they hammered the nails. They tied him up first, put tape around his head, then hammered the nails in ... that must have been so painful. I felt so sorry for him.”
On a typical night recently, Ormeneta walked down a narrow slum alleyway into a shanty where masked assailants had shot a man dead, the victim’s body still smelling of alcohol that he must have been drinking shortly before being killed.
The victim’s sister wailed as police turned over his body on the concrete floor soaked in blood and revealed multiple gunshots to his head and body.
Police later told AFP that Danilo Bolante, 47, had sold shabu, the cheap crystal methamphetamine that Duterte says is ruining society and must be eradicated.