Forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun shared a photo of a death certificate of a drug war victim which listed a peculiar cause of death.
The forensic expert on Friday, March 21 posted part of a death certificate which she said belonged to a “war on drugs” case in 2020.
The war on drugs was former president Rodrigo Duterte‘s signature policy which aimed to rid the country of illegal drugs.
The bloody initiative has resulted in thousands of deaths among Filipinos, with human rights groups estimating the toll to be as high as 30,000.
It has also caught the Hague-based International Criminal Court‘s attention, with Duterte being accused of multiple cases of murder as a crime against humanity.
The former head of state is currently at the ICC Detention Center in the Netherlands, awaiting his confirmation of charges hearing on September 23.
In one such drug war case, Fortun noticed that the death certificate listed an unusual cause.
“Medico-legal officer as cause of death,” she wrote on the X (formerly Twitter) platform with a face-screaming-in-fear emoji.
Medico-legal officer as cause of death😱 pic.twitter.com/oCWvZygC4q
— Raquel Fortun (@Doc4Dead) March 20, 2025
Her post has received 1,400 likes, almost 200 reposts, and 97 replies so far.
In a repost, Fortun said the deceased’s remains were “autopsied by the Philippine National Police, signed by police medico-legal doctor.”
“Admission of guilt?” she quipped with an upside-down smiling face.
When asked by another user who did the death certificate, she replied that it was the “police.”
A medico-legal officer in the Philippine National Police is a doctor offering forensic service to the police.
Fortun, one of the only two forensic pathologists in the country, has helped families and relatives of extrajudicial killings tied to the drug war with her examination of exhumed remains of some of the poorest victims to document how they died.
Reuters previously shadowed her and learned that official death certificates of at least 15 drug war victims did not reflect the violent manner in which police and family members said they died.
The death certificates indicate that the deceased had succumbed to natural causes such as pneumonia or hypertension instead of saying they were shot.
Fortun shared that she has found gunshot wounds, fractures and bullets in nearly four dozen sets of remains she has examined so far — trauma that often isn’t reflected in the death certificates.
ALSO READ: A pathologist, a priest and a hunt for justice in the Philippines | Forensic pathologist says some drug war death certificates falsified
