my son i said how can i can face him i saw so much pain in the eyes of the other female prisoners. of the uprising coming soon on al-jazeera. in the philippines president ridge rigo deter site has declared a war on drugs that's left more than 12000 people dead. but they're not the only victims it's also left tens of thousands of people languishing in giles is caught struggle to process a record number of drug arrests but i thought where am i why am i here i shouldn't be here what is this place. i'm on a one ace we investigate the shocking conditions inside the world's most congested giles and the inmates trying to survive.

it's early in the morning and a full name is rising. in the shadows like thousands of bodies waged into every corner of every inch. welcome to manila city jail one of the most congested prisons in the world 2. we've been given extended access here to find out why chance in the philippines a so overcrowded and to meet the inmates who've been called monster is by their own government. so tell me about the jail missed the story here on the south side jay ricks pristine is the jail's chief records office up even he is shocked by the

conditions here right now based on the united nations minimum standards our idea of capacity should be around $1100.00 inmates. but the actual jail population right now is up to 6300 inmates. that's almost 600 percent of the capacity. we should be scared you know because we can be outnumbered . and that's not an exaggeration according to international standards this should be one god for every 7 prisoners. the ratio here is one to about 200. to officials have adopted some unusual solutions. i think the most unique is when we use the inmates the police are there in it they elect their own leaders and then we delegate some of our authority again there there's. the marcellus they help us

in such a piece in order to. post in here a admits the jails here have always been crowded but it has reached unprecedented levels since president rhodri go to to take announced his war on drugs. arjay population has increased by 50 percent a sense that since 26 being where the time where he took office lives are at 50 percent yeah 50 percent. in the slums of manilla this war has become infamous for the extrajudicial killing of thousands of drug suspects rights groups accuse the police of being involved.

but look beyond the blood shed and you find tens of thousands of people who are incarcerated indefinitely after being arrested for drug crimes. to see this campaign in action we joined the drug enforcement agency on an operation to bost a suspected dealer. in a manila parking lot undercover agents away saying in this car to buy crystal meth or shopping from the suspect. it was a difficult mission. but it's a tense weiss as agents negotiate the deal so we're still waiting for the insignia . of the car with. them that the law is a clash. the agency using to make the rest. of

. the. bases just on the half a kilo of shabu with a street value of about $60000.00. how much jail time is he looking at. between big. there are humans. in the later years and. the operation is a success but our investigation suggests that not all drug arrests this clean. since 2016 almost 160000 people have been arrested in the anti narcotics campaign. guilty oh no they go straight to prisons like manila city jail . jails in the philippines were built to hold around 20000 people

but today they are housing more than 130000 most of these people haven't even been convicted of a crime based still waiting for verdicts in the case of. one of the inmates stuck in this limbo is good they're maupassant he's already spent more than 2. 100 for a verdict in his drug case. we meet him as he's heading to yet another court hearing. for the 1st time i set foot inside here i felt like i was being choked. i thought where am i why am i here i shouldn't be here what is this place. suddenly i found myself crying i was so scared. i was charged with section $5.11 possession and dealing drugs the police report

that he was busted with 0.24 grams of shoppers but glamorous says he was set up by a cop during a drug operation in his neighborhood only. one a policeman shouted. he has a gun i was like wait i don't have to go. when they didn't find anything but the same policeman said i'm going to charge you with $511.00 a much more serious crime. says the officers planted evidence against him at the police station. on the table there was already the evidence and they told me to point at it so they can take a photo but i refused i said that's not mine why do i have to point out that. they told me do you want us to kill you we should have killed you while ago. they

asked me how much can you give i said what do you mean they said just give us $2000.00 you can bail yourself out. i told them i don't have any money i'm poor. i have to admit i was skeptical of clare my story almost everyone in jail says the innocent but he says he has no reason to lie he's already pled guilty to the charges. even if you didn't do anything you have to admit to it just so you can plea bargain to be released early . we have to bite the bullet we don't have a choice. we're doing this for the sake of our family. there is no bail for drug offenses if glare mo for the charges he could spend years in prison just waiting for a verdict. by pleading guilty he got

a reduced sentence that technically he's already served. and now. i'm going. to get there. after a long ways. it's finally go there most turn to appear before the judge. but within minutes. it's he's back out in the hallway the judge did not grant his release he still has to have a mandatory drug test to determine if he's an addict and that could take months. is devastated. he was sure he was going home to his family i don't know how the body will. start to get that i.

know my and out of the number of things will. let. you know you're watching them over the summer. but the more. about the. muslims having a beginning. they're most not the only one having a rough day at the course how many people here are here for drugs cases raise your hat. most people ok and how many people here had their hearings canceled up a sport raise your hands. so all of these hearings scheduled but as you can see a lot of them never got to come before a judge. every time a hearing is perspiring and it prolongs the trial adding months to an inmate's

incarceration. the courts a so of a stretch that this happens all the time leaving people stranded behind bars for years. it's enough to push some to suicide by. the. at the jail inmates have set up a support group to help each other cope good morning by me being. 6 a. month last month in the shop or. near 6 months like most of the prisoners many here were arrested for drugs. that are happening right. now. but maybe only showing. these sessions alleged by 58 year old tree hill leo reyes. he's one of the prisons longest serving inmates with his trial dragging on now for more than 14 years. he says

is what's kept him a mind if. my government. building. people should not drink or knowing i'm. really i was a decorated public servant working for the manila city council but in 2004 he was charged with falsifying public documents and embezzling money charges he says were politically motivated what should we do when we have a bear we have. here in the gate what shall we do. our hand do or. have you ever been convicted of a crime no conviction no big. really

how the hell you know has been acquitted of over 20 cases but he still has more than 50 pending today he's missing a jail paralegal to find out if his hearings can be fast tracked. about. a new member hearing schoolma'am. of. 200 behaving badly. i'm about not putting my more done when they land. at this race he could die in jail before the court gets through all his cases you have spent more than 14 years in jail are you not angry or this are about being forced to stay here if you are a high degree you will match your buy. or. i

need to get i will be my main. about me because i used to be born made mainly. of the lump and. all the office i can do is fill out a complaint form. but if he's disappointed he doesn't show it he says today he wants to forget his problems. it's prisoner awareness week and everyone else in the jail isn't good enough. and dance competitions. and the hill is leading the charge in simba. families have also come to watch the festivities. they're allowed in he has 6 days

a week wives even get conjugal visits and children get to spend time with their father. many inmates tell me that this is the only thing that keeps them sane. people don't have visited us they get depressed. they start thinking too much they always wonder why they don't have any visitors. but glare mode doesn't allow his children to visit 9 he can bear for them to see him behind bars. you know they. want. their most is that even though he can be with his children he tries to be

a good father but it's not easy. and their man. but. i mean i don't. think. this is one of the listen this is my responsibility as a father. i never experienced my father's love in that i never felt his love even though i'm the man. and i'm with the saudi i promised myself. when i have kids i will never let them experience what my father says it to me. oh oh oh oh. oh.

oh oh. oh. i don't feel it. was a bit closer to the. outside 27. has a visit obviously his youngest daughter. because he asks us to conceal her identity he doesn't want to be stigmatized because of his imprisonment things have been damaged by the whole thing. cause. it's a bad. thing. they've been around them a passion. for hayley i was a father of 5 when he was sent to jail now they have kids of their own you know not only on the net change on the field.

but despite everything the hero says he's grateful in spite of my many years good in the game the fun in the. way it should be very very good. shape is pleasing the road and the molder and the bugger children and bell big one of their own. it's been a good day for heavier than. the time has passed to quickly enough of the. fun they got out of the figure among my i'm among them on the provisional which alone is not going to. as much as the love seeing his family or his ears says it's on bearable watching them leave. calamity is also having

a tough nice to spending the day watching other fathers spend time with their children. sitting between us my kids are my strength. and that's why i'm trying to be strong. for them. he prays for them every nice he says he can never forgive the police for separating him from his family 7 their motto is to serve and protect but the reality is they only serve and protect themselves. again and again inmates told me disturbing stories about police misconduct allegations of torture extortion and the planting of evidence. but they didn't have proof. then i came across a chilling story. a team of

journalists and human rights activists raided a police station in manila after receiving a tip off what they found inside was shocking. behind this bookshelf diane covered a windowless secret cell hiding 12 terrified people respond to. that the police and the like and then the men all. they were detained as drug suspects but none of them had been charged with the crime in fact the station had no record of them at all the i'm not. saying anything more about that when i was found out. i know. that. the detainees said this cell had no water or functioning toilet they were difficult using plastic bags they said police had tortured them and demanded money for their

release when the. really quite a bit of gossip in the country no no one could orient. i don't know what is going to go crazy on. my own in the middle east not finding out about it. now and i'm going to buy those a lot of. the commander of the station denies the allegations he said that simply run out of space in the holding cell. i think it was. if i could do that what i wanted to play to find out if we know. that it was and that would be the medication that you don't like that you have it and that you have. they warn of this. since the raid none of the officers from the station have been fired. meanwhile the detainees have been

forced into hiding. we tracked down one of the men who was in that cell look at the room as the norm we didn't know. when we arrived they just punched me and told me to confess to having drugs but they weren't mine they didn't find anything on me. this former detainees has been in hiding for months terrified of police retribution he says he spent 9 days in that cell while police try to force a confession. after my arrest they wouldn't stop beating me. every night they would bring me out of the cell and say let's kill this guy in a drug operation. or i was bleeding sweating i even urinated. did you think it was strange that the police were locking you up in this pit and so . they put us in that cell so they could extort money from us that's the truth i

was told i'd be released if i gave them about a $1000.00 but if none of us could pay they were charging us with section 511. we try to put these allegations to the philippine national police they would not talk to us but activists say that police misconduct is endemic with impoverished and innocent people routinely arrested. it's an experience that. says he's had 1st hand. in most of us out of 100 percent i only have 5 percent faith in the police by. so many of my neighbors are in jail with me. our whole communities here. calero says the police and the law have failed him even after pleading guilty and serving the sentence for

a crime he says he didn't commit he's still stuck in prison here with the sad news . today he's finally getting his court ordered drug test he needs a clean urine sample and the green light from a doctor before he can be released would. well look also good but i'm going to let alone a lot of unemployed and a lot of the no police for miles and those who say i don't mind your 6 months talk to hussein one veranda has been working in drug rehabilitation facility here. what was your assessment of the status on i think when i see my son not drug use or has that using drugs anymore and therefore there is no impaired base on our part to do in your experience to a lot of people not using drugs at mit to stick drugs just to get out of jail there are there are people who i mean by less selfish just to be able to get up.

earlier than all the might. say in their most says he has lost faith in justice. now you can only tune to gaunt and the president mr president mr president not everyone who is in jail is. not everyone is a bad person or that we are human beings like you. after more than 14 years the hell you know is also desperately trying to hold on to his face he still believes that one day he will be free i stood 1 may like i had a purpose that might actually these things have a purpose i am really really i've been cleaned up i shouldn't be here

in bend it would be. the war on drugs in the philippines is pushing jake to a breaking point a record number of inmates languish behind bars for a year awaiting trial while the philippines is locked up on al jazeera. this is a really fabulous news from one of the best i've ever worked in there is a unique sense of bonding where everybody teams in but something i feel every time i get on the chair every time i interview someone we're often working around the clock to make sure that we bring events as i currently as possible to the viewer that's what people expect of us and that's what i think we really do well.

oh. the government of saudi arabia needs to to make make things better for these victims. a saudi national opens fire in a classroom money u.s. naval base killing 3 people and injuring 11 of us. i'm sorry say this is al jazeera live from also coming up. at least 9 people are shot dead in iraq near a price of sight in baghdad killing square.