On the President’s Orders

James Jones, Olivier Sarbil

In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte announced a “war on drugs” in the Philippines, setting off a wave of violence and murder targeting thousands of suspected drug dealers and users. With unprecedented, intimate access, On the President’s Orders is a shocking and revelatory investigation into the extrajudicial murders that continue to this day.

DIRECTOR
James Jones, Olivier Sarbil
YEAR
2019
COUNTRY
UK / USA
RUNTIME
72 minutes
LANGUAGE
English and Tagalog, fully subtitled in English

Q&As with James Jones, Olivier Sarbil, and Carlos Conde, Researcher, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch

In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte announced a “war on drugs” in the Philippines, setting off a wave of violence and murder targeting thousands of suspected drug dealers and users. With unprecedented, intimate access both to police officials implicated in the killings and the families destroyed as the result of Duterte’s deadly campaign, On the President’s Orders is a shocking and revelatory investigation into the extrajudicial murders that continue to this day. Entering a murky world of crime, drugs and politics, the filmmakers have managed to capture the clear trajectory of what depths those who wield excessive power can reach, when attacking those who have the very least. 

On the President’s Orders
On the President’s Orders
On the President’s Orders
On the President’s Orders

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