Amnesty International Philippines on Wednesday said that extrajudicial killings (EJKs) from the past administration remain a serious concern.

In a press conference, Amnesty International Philippines Section Director Butch Olano said that over 600 people were killed during the first 19 months of the Marcos administration.

Olano based these figures on the studies by research groups from the University of the Philippines (UP), including the Dahas Project which said that 329 were killed in the drug war in 2023 and the Third World Study Center which said 342 victims were slain from June 2022 to June 2023.

“These were documented. And this shows that the EJKs continue and are unabated. It's interesting to note… that of the figures of those from June 2022 to June 2023, 15 percent was in Davao City alone,” Olano said at a press conference.

Olano called on the government to investigate the deaths that occurred a day after Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte declared a new war on drugs in March.

“And recently, we were alarmed and concerned about the new pronouncement of Mayor Sebastian Duterte where he declared a new war on drugs just this March 2024. And according to Human Rights Watch, in their report, immediately after the pronouncement, five people were killed,” he said.

“We call on the Marcos administration to initiate the investigation of Sebastian Duterte, Mayor of Davao, and other local government units who blatantly do not follow the rule of law, investigate human rights violations related to his new declaration on the war on drugs,” he added.

Amnesty International Philippines urged President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to make a “clear and explicit” policy to end the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

Olano urged the government to begin the process of making the country rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a member state and to cooperate with their probe of Duterte’s drug war.

“We are calling on the Marcos government... to cooperate with the ICC investigation and to allow access to either evidence or witnesses. And to allow the investigators to come into the country,” Olano said.

He also called on the current administration to begin the process of making the country rejoin the ICC as a state party and “ensure safeguards to prevent any administration from arbitrarily withdrawing”.

Amnesty International released The State of the World’s Human Rights 2023 report, an overview of the global human rights situation, which includes 155 countries. Jaspearl Tan/DMS