“Robert” was right behind the gunman when he shot the boy’s father, “Renato Aldeguer,” on December 19, 2016. He said his father, who scavenged for scraps for a living, was a good man. Since his death, the four Aldeguer children have been living in the streets of Mandaluyong City because their relationship with their mother fell apart. Photo taken in February 2019.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
Children carry the coffin of “Veneracion” to the top of an apartment-type grave in a cemetery in Mandaluyong City on December 29, 2016. A masked gunman shot her in the head while she ate dinner outside a convenient store on December 16, 2016. Three days later, at her wake, her brother-in-law, “Renato Aldeguer,” was shot dead, leaving behind young children.
© 2016 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
Karla with her brother Robert and their cousins spend their day near the Marketplace mall in Kalentong, Mandaluyong City, in February 2019. They were looking for her brother John, who would often go missing.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
“John” lies on a ledge in the streets of Mandaluyong City in January 2019. He witnessed his father being shot by a masked gunman on December 19, 2016. He grabbed his father from behind while the gunman was shooting him and was wounded in the leg.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
According to his mother, “Kyle,” who is 5 in this February 2019 photo, became more violent after his father was killed in November 2016. His father, “Alvin Ricaforte,” was found dead on the Delpan bridge, in Tondo, Manila, his face wrapped in packaging tape and bearing multiple stab wounds in the chest. According to Kyle’s mother, Ricaforte’s body was shown on TV several times and Kyle recognized him.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
“Zeny” got depressed and lost her Job after her husband “Alvin Ricaforte” was killed. She says she cannot control her son, Kyle, and is now worried that she might lose her job again. Photo taken in February 2019.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
“Jennifer” was 11 when her father was shot dead in December 2016 during a drug raid in their home in Payatas, Quezon City, February 2019.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
“Rose” and “Eddie” playing on their couch in February 2019, inside their house in Quezon City. The single couch on the right is where their father, “Benigno Mercado,” was shot dead in December 2016 while pleading for his life from gunmen.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
"Pocholo," 17, in February 2019, admitted using drugs but dropped the habit when President Rodrigo Duterte launched his “war on drugs.” The police still harassed him, threatening to kill him when he turned 18. Fearing for his life, he decided to seek refuge at a children’s group south of Manila.
© 2019 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch
Children cover their noses from the smell during a mass burial on January 24, 2017, of unclaimed bodies in a cemetery in Navotas, a city in Metro Manila that has been hard hit in the “drug war.”
© 2017 Carlo Gabuco for Human Rights Watch