The Philippines: Locked Up

How the war on drugs is pushing Filipino jails to breaking point as they operate at 600 percent their capacity.

"The first time I set foot inside here, I felt like I was being choked," says Manila City Jail inmate, Guillermo Busano. "I thought, 'Where am I? Why am I here?' I was so scared."

Almost 160,000 people like Busano have been arrested in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed the 'war on drugs' in 2016.

Jails across the country are in crisis. Some are 600 percent over capacity, with the vast majority of prisoners jailed for years without conviction as over-burdened courts struggle to process their cases on time.