In excess of 200,000 detainees have been conceded a regal absolution on the propitious event of His Majesty the King’s 69th birthday celebration including 35,000 prisoners who will be delivered on parole. These detainees will either be paroled or given a decrease in their sentences under the 2021 Royal Pardon Royal Decree, inside 120 days after the announcement produces results …

The Philippines has the world’s highest prison occupancy rate, aggravated by the war on drugs waged by the Duterte administration, under which hundreds of thousands of people have been imprisoned since July 2016. Since March 2020, thousands of people have been charged and briefly held for breaking curfews and quarantine laws, with subsequent chaotic police lockups and jails. As with …