The Philippines' top judges have ruled the International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute "government actors" for alleged crimes committed before the country withdrew from the tribunal –contradicting President Rodrigo Duterte's assertion it has no jurisdiction.The Supreme Court ruling – made in March but released in full to the public on Wednesday – comes as prosecutors at the world's only permanent war crimes court seek a full-blown investigation into Duterte'

The bilateral relations between the Philippines and the European Union (EU) have been relatively friendly for quite some time until it soured when the Duterte administration launched its war against illegal drugs. The somewhat embittered relationship started when the EU Parliament in September 2016 passed a resolution expressing its dismay, calling on the Philippine government to look at the casualties of its war on drugs, more specifically on the extrajudicial killings.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday drug offenders should be executed by lethal injection, in a fresh push for the death penalty as part of his anti-narcotics crackdown that has killed thousands. In a wide-ranging State of the Nation address, Duterte also admitted the government's response to the coronavirus epidemic had been "far from perfect" as the number of infections surged past 82,000, with nearly 2,000 deaths. Duterte had been expected to u

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war has unleashed widespread and systematic killing with "near impunity" for offenders, a United Nations (UN) report said Thursday, calling for an independent probe into human rights abuses.Police have been encouraged by the highest levels of government to use lethal force on drug suspects and thousands have been killed by officers and unknown gunmen since 2016, the UN human rights office said. Many suspects had been put on &

The dozen children stared shyly at the audience but grew bolder when they began to sing, pouring their grief into music for the fathers they lost to the Philippines' drug war.They perform as a choir that is both an act of protest against the internationally condemned campaign, and a key element in their community's effort to keep these children from being gunned down too.Poor families like theirs have been especially hard hit by President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly crackdown, whi

A Philippine senator who initially led President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug war sparked outrage Thursday when he dismissed the killing of a toddler in a police anti-narcotics operation with an expletive and as collateral damage.Ex-Philippine police chief Ronald Dela Rosa, who won a senate seat in May, made the comments as police burned 1.4 tonnes (over 3,000 pounds) of seized narcotics while warning the nation still faced a flood of illegal drugs.Authorities said a three-year-old girl