Raquel Fortun is one of only two forensic pathologists in the Philippines. Earlier this year, I interviewed her about her mission to discover the truth, and hopefully win justice, for the victims of former president Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs".
Her crusade came about through unlikely circumstances. The victims of Duterte's crackdowns were overwhelmingly from the poorest backgrounds, and many families could not afford to extend temporary leases on their graves. As families began to face eviction from cemeteries five years on from the killings, Fortun offered to carry out investigations to collect evidence about their deaths.
Known to many as just Doc, Fortun does the work for free. She has a no-nonsense manner, and spoke frankly about the risks she faces by working on such politically sensitive cases.
She has found serious irregularities in how official postmortems were performed - including at least a dozen death certificates that wrongly cited natural causes, such as pneumonia or sepsis.
The killings, which estimates suggest led to between 12,000 and 30,000 deaths, are the subject of an investigation by the international criminal court. However, its investigators have been banned from the country, making the work of experts such as Fortun even more crucial.
Rebecca Ratcliffe, south-east Asia correspondent The Indian father who rescued his daughter...with a fanfare If only all Indian fathers could be like Prem Gupta, 55, India would be a much happier place for young women.
When he heard that his newly married daughter, Sakshi, was being mistreated by her husband, Gupta took a different path from that trodden by millions of parents: they would have told her to tolerate the abuse to save her family the stigma of divorce, and urged her to adjust. Married women who are being abused or beaten by their husbands hear this exhortation from their parents all the time, leaving them with no escape route.
Esta historia es de la edición December 22, 2023 de The Guardian Weekly.
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Esta historia es de la edición December 22, 2023 de The Guardian Weekly.
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Starlink's conquest of the Amazon leaves Brazil in a dilemma
The helicopter swooped into one of the most inaccessible corners of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian special forces commandos leaped from it into the caiman-inhabited waters below.
Dalai Lama's mountain town feels the strain of tourist boom
SUVs and saloon cars pass slowly along McLeod Ganj's narrow one-way Jogiwara Road, blaring horns at pedestrians and scooter riders and playing loud music.
'I am all the world' The brutal rule of a West Bank settler
Palestinians tell ofblacklisted Yakov's reign across the Jabal Salman valley and heisjust one of many violent bosses
Stormy waters New flashpoint emerges in South China Sea dispute
Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived.
'Justice delayed' Why trust in public inquiries to bring closure is fading
After the final report of the Grenfell fire inquiry was published, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members in the blaze, said: \"We did not ask for this inquiry... It's delayed the justice my family deserves.\"
Celeriac soup with almond pangrattato
I'm not ashamed to say that as soon as September hits, my stick blender comes out. Just as I embrace salads when the clocks go forward in the UK, I wholeheartedly throw myself into soup season once the summer holidays end. Autumn is approaching in the northern hemisphere and I'm ready with my ladle. Celeriac is one of my favourite soup heroes, because it gives the creamiest, silkiest finish with little effort. You don't have to make the almond pangrattato, but it is a wonderful addition.
Are smoke signals telling me to make an oil change in the kitchen?
Should you that is, not can you) cook with extra-virgin olive oil? Antonio, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Going underground
A darkly humorous encounter between an American spy-cop and the members ofan eco-commune she is hired to infiltrate
All work and no play
Hard Graft, a powerfulnew London exhibition, focuses onworkers’ exploitation, from the ruined hands ofa washerwoman to mothers forced to sell their bodies
What the princess and the shaman tell us about hereditary privilege
It should have been an Instagram-perfect wedding image, but it turned out to be something more embarrassing.
