Philippines court orders arrest of 3 policemen in drug war’s 1st murder case

A court in the Philippines has ordered the arrest of three policemen for the high-profile August 2017 death of a teenager, the first murder case in a war on drugs that has seen thousands of Filipinos killed. The Caloocan City regional trial court in Manila issued an arrest order on Wednesday following the recent filing of murder charges by state prosecutors over the death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, a student described in a police report after his death as a drug courier, Reuters said. The three policemen were on restricted duty having been reassigned to the regional headquarters south of Manila in the wake of the teenager’s murder. His death caused outrage over a bloody drugs crackdown that is largely supported by Filipinos, but condemned by the international community.