MANILA • The Vice-President of the Philippines has issued a strong rebuke of President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs, describing it in a video sent to the United Nations as an issue of public health that cannot be solved "with bullets alone".

More than 8,000 people have died since Mr Duterte began his war on drugs when he took office on June 30. More than 2,500 were killed in police operations during which officers said they fired in self-defence.

Human rights groups say thousands of other deaths of drug users and peddlers are extrajudicial killings, probably ordered by the police. The police have strongly rejected the accusation.

In a message to be shown today at the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Drugs in Geneva, Mrs Leni Robredo challenged Mr Duterte's crackdown, describing the killings as "summary executions". Filipinos were "hopeless and helpless", she added.

"The body count due to the drug-related killings keeps growing," Mrs Robredo said in the video statement uploaded on YouTube.

"We are now looking at some very grim statistics: Since July last year, more than 7,000 people have been killed in summary executions. Our people need nothing less than a safe environment."

The government has made no immediate comment on the video.

Mrs Robredo has emerged as one of a few high-profile Filipinos willing to speak out against the war on drugs.

Many of its domestic critics have been ridiculed and are routinely discredited by Mr Duterte and his aides, some subject to fierce barbs from the President's huge online support base. Mr Duterte himself has vowed to humiliate foreign leaders who challenge him over the campaign.

Mrs Robredo's relationship with Mr Duterte is frosty and since being disinvited from his Cabinet meetings, they rarely meet and do so only during public events.

She belongs to another political party and was not Mr Duterte's choice for vice-president, who is elected in a separate contest.

A social activist and lawyer, Mrs Robredo said the public should demand greater transparency about the drug war and questioned Mr Duterte's figures on drug use.

Mr Duterte has recently described four million Filipinos as "slaves" to drugs.

"Our leaders must be honest about the basis of the drug war and what exactly is the scope of the drug problem," she said, adding that the problem was linked to poverty and inequality.

Mrs Robredo detailed a litany of alleged human rights abuses during the crackdown on what she said were predominantly poor communities.

"People are told they do not have any right to demand search warrants as they are squatters," she said in the video.

Mrs Robredo accused police of using a tactic of detaining the loved ones of drug suspects if they cannot find their targets.

Police spokesman Dionardo Carlos rebutted that contention during a television interview yesterday.

REUTERS