A Philippine police officer has been found guilty of killing two teenagers during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, court documents showed, in a rare conviction of one of the crackdown’s enforcers.
During his six-year term, which ended in June 2022, Duterte openly ordered police to shoot dead drug suspects if officers’ lives were in danger.
More than 6,200 people died in the anti-narcotics campaign, according to official figures, but rights groups estimate the actual figure was in the tens of thousands.
Only three police officers had previously been convicted for killing a suspect during the crackdown, which sparked an investigation at the International Criminal Court.
On March 1, a Manila court ruled that Jeffrey Perez was guilty of murdering Reynaldo De Guzman, 14, and Carl Arnaiz, 19, in 2017, according to a verdict seen by AFP.
Perez was sentenced to a minimum 20 years behind bars.
He was already serving a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty by a different court in November of torturing the two teenagers.
