The BBC has joined the army of major foreign networks who are putting the spotlight — pressure — on President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines.
And their star? A female assassin they simply called “Maria” (not her real name).
“When you meet an assassin who has killed six people, you don’t expect to encounter a diminutive, nervous young woman carrying a baby,” wrote Jonathan Head of the BBC in his Aug 26 article.
Maria shared that she operates with a group of assassins, hired killers who do the government’s dirty work of eliminating drug pushers.
Like her, the female assassins in their group are of high value, since they can get closer to the target with less suspicion.
Maria got her first kill contract two years ago when her husband, who’s also a hired killer, said they needed a woman to do the job.
“My first job was two years ago in this province nearby. I felt really scared and nervous because it was my first time… When I saw the man I was supposed to kill, I got near him and I shot him,” Maria recalled.
So, who does she work for?
“Our boss, the police officer,” she told Head. That same officer hired her husband to finish off a man — also a drug dealer — who failed to make payments.
The BBC report said these hired killers get paid PHP20,000 per hit, which is then split between two or three hitmen. More than enough money to put food on the table, but still not enough to clear Maria’s conscience.
“I feel guilty and it is hard on my nerves. I don’t want the families of those I have killed to come after me,” she told the BBC.
Maria often hopes her next hit would be her last, but her boss won’t allow it — he has threatened to kill them if they leave. A threat that is all too real for her and her husband.
Thinking about their children, she said, “I do not want them to come back at us and say that they got to live because we killed for money.”
