Philippines: Bone diggers seek justice for dead in Duterte's drug war

At Manila North Cemetery, Father Flavie Villanueva - Bible in one hand, and a plastic bottle of holy water in his pocket - prays with a bereaved mother beside her son's grave.

They watch as the front of the vault to the grave is hammered off. Inside are the remains of Felizardo Virgo, shot dead on 18 August, 2019, aged 27.

His corpse is carefully removed and placed inside a black body bag. Before it's zipped shut, Father Flavie checks the tomb to ensure every bit of the skeletonised remains has been removed - even a tiny piece of bone might reveal something more about the shooting.

Erlinda hopes her son's bones will speak; that they will deliver justice for families like hers - thousands of them - who have lost their loved ones to a ruthless "war on drugs" in the Philippines.

At the forefront of this effort are Father Flavie and a forensic pathologist, Dr Raquel Fortun, who have joined forces to collect evidence that may one day be used in a judicial inquiry into these deaths.

There have been few investigations, and the Philippine government has refused access to investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor first expressed concern about drug-related killings in 2016.

But that has not deterred Father Flavie or Dr Fortun, who hope that what they have found can make it to the ICC. Since July 2021, Dr Fortun has autopsied the remains of more than 90 victims, and discovered multiple inconsistencies. These include gunshot victims whose death certificates said they died of "natural causes", and "copy-pasted" reports that have little to do with the cause of death.

The Philippine government estimates that more than 6,252 people have been gunned down by the police and "unknown assailants" since former