Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte should allow the United Nations to investigate his war on drugs, and abandon a deadly campaign that has been failure and a dent on the country's international image, its vice-president says.
The crackdown has overwhelmingly targeted the poor rather than big drugs networks, Leni Robredo said in an interview on Wednesday, adding Duterte's violent rhetoric was aiding a culture of police impunity for which international help should be sought if the government refused to change tack.
Robredo, who was elected separately to Duterte and has a frosty relationship with the president, said the thousands of people killed was already too many, with no evidence of a decline in drugs supply or usage.
"We ask ourselves, 'why is this still happening?' The president has already made very serious threats to drug syndicates, to drug lords ... and yet it's still very prevalent, so obviously, it's not working," Robredo told Reuters.
"We have seen a lot of police that have abused their powers and not been penalised so this is where the International Criminal Court could come in, if we do not show the world that we can take care of our own mess.
"The lives of our people are on the line and the dignity of our country is on the line but my first call is for our government to take care of the mess."
The authorities reject activists' allegations that drug dealers and users are being executed and say the more than 7000 people killed by police had all resisted arrest.
Police say they have no connection to the mysterious murders of thousands more drug users.
Duterte is furious at a resolution in July by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the bloodshed, and in 2018 he withdrew the Philippines' membership of the ICC after it launched a preliminary examination into alleged crimes against humanity.
Australian Associated Press
