Many fear taking on the police for killings in the Philippines' brutal drug war. This widow doesn't
QUEZON CITY, Philippines - The rain was relentless the night Cherwen Polo turned 38, transforming his slum into a slurry of mud and garbage. Water leaked through his corrugated tin roof. Inside, he and four friends had been celebrating for hours, drinking late into the night.
There was a knock at the door. It was the police.
Moments later, they shot and killed Polo and three of his friends.
The raid on Aug. 14, 2016, was business as usual for the Philippine police, who have killed an estimated 3,800 suspected drug dealers and users since that summer in a brutal but popular campaign waged by the president, Rodrigo Duterte. As is typical in such cases, police said that the operation was a "buy-bust" and that Polo had fired on them first.
The dead have left behind countless family members, most too overwhelmed, too impoverished or too afraid of police retaliation to pursue justice through the courts.
Polo's 30-year-old
