Assignment: Bones that speak

Available for over a year

In 2016, the Philippines’ newly elected president, Rodrigo Duterte declared there was one, common enemy: the drugs trade. What followed was a bloodbath. Addicts, alleged traffickers, and many who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, were gunned down in the streets by the security services. The government put the number of people killed in the ‘war on drugs’ at 6,252, a figure that does not include the thousands killed by unknown assailants. Now some of those victims are speaking from beyond the grave. A Catholic priest, Father Flaviano 'Flavie' Villanueva, offers families help to exhume and cremate the bodies. But before cremation, the remains are examined by one of only two forensic pathologists in the Philippines, Dr Raquel Fortun. Her findings often contradict police narratives. Linda Pressly reports on the efforts to uncover the truth.