Philippine police conducting door-to-door drug testing, despite objections of human rights groups
Rights groups stressed Duterte’s crackdown has overwhelmingly targeted the poor, and those killed were mainly drug users or low-level pushers from families with no resources to challenge official police accounts
Philippine police were knocking on doors in one of Manila’s poorest neighbourhoods on Wednesday to encourage people to take on-the-spot drug tests, a campaign condemned by rights groups as harassment that could endanger lives.
Carrying drug testing kits, police officers accompanied by community officials were seen by Reuters going to houses asking residents if they were willing to submit urine samples.
Payatas, one of the most populated subdistricts, or barangays, in the capital’s Quezon City neighbourhood, has been identified as a crime-prone area with a serious drug problem. Community leaders said they requested help from police, and testing was voluntary.
Dozens of Payatas residents have died during President Rodrigo Duterte’s ferocious 14-month-old war on drugs, which has killed thousands of Filipinos, many in what critics say are suspicious circumstances.
Residents said more than 300 of the 130,000 people in Payatas were already on a drug “watch list” drawn up last year by community leaders of known addicts.
Our goal is to have a drug-free barangay this year. We only asked the police to help us and we are grateful
Barangay watch lists have been drawn up by community leaders to identify those in need of rehabilitation, but activists said some of those who appeared on them have become targets for assassination. The authorities denied the watch lists serve as hit lists.