Francisco Maneja, bleeding from gun shot wounds, raises his hands to ask for help in Manila. Credit:Dante Diosina Duterte's crackdown, which has left more than 3500 people dead since he took office three months ago, has been condemned around the world, including by the Catholic Church, United Nations and United States. But in Manila, in communities ravaged by the highly addictive shabu, Duterte's popularity still hovers above 90 per cent and criticism of the bloodshed is muted, even among some addicts. Maneja and police have differing stories of his shooting but what is certain is that the police never thought he would live to tell his side of it. One policeman was seen nudging him with his foot, to satisfy himself he was dead.

One of two people killed in a double shooting in the Manila suburb of Baclaran is left lying in the street. Credit:Kate Geraghty Maneja admits he was using shabu three or four times a day while earning money riding a motor tricycle taxi but denies he was a "pusher" or trafficker. He says he reduced his use to once or twice a week when Duterte was swept into office in May promising that fish in Manila Bay would grow fat on the bodies of drug suspects and criminals. An overcrowded cell in Manila. Credit:Kate Geraghty "I actually voted for the president. I wanted to kick my habit," he told Fairfax Media.

"I have a wife and two children to care for." Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Credit:AP According to Maneja, a man he believes was an undercover police officer got into his tricycle and ordered him to a police station where he was later accused of selling shabu and was beaten. He said he was told he would be released if he pointed out a drug dealer. He was taken back to his tricycle and driven to a dark area with four other men on board, including another accused drugs suspect later identified as a local named George Huggins. Suddenly one of the men pulled Maneja out of the tricycle and shot him four times, he claims.

Other gunshots then rang out, killing Huggins. Manila Times photographer Dante Diosino was several hours into a long night camped out at the press office at Manila police headquarters when word came through that two bodies were lying in a street in the suburb of Malate, opposite Manila Bay, in the early hours of September 13. He rushed to the scene with other photojournalists whose pictures have exposed the brutal reality of the crackdown. "I saw two bodies and assumed they were dead. I thought I saw one move and dismissed it but then, about 10 minutes later, the guy sat up screaming for help and saying that men on a motorbike had shot him," Diosino said. "I got the shock of my life." A revolver was found next to Maneja, which he claims wasn't his.

Uniformed police took Maneja to hospital where they said blood tests showed he had traces of methamphetamine. The police story is that Maneja and Huggins were selling drugs to an undercover policeman when they sensed who the buyer was. The men produced weapons but were shot during a fire-fight with police. Maneja said many shabu users he knows still support Duterte, the 71-year-old former mayor of the southern city of Davao, whose brash iron-fist rule has shaken the powerful families who have run the Philippines for decades. His obscenity-laden tirades against those who criticise him for human rights abuses have caused alarm among American allies in Asia, including Australia.

He labelled US President Barack Obama the "son of a whore" and told the European Union "f--- you" while raising his finger in an obscene gesture. Like tens of thousands of drug suspects who have surrendered after police were given shoot-on-sight orders, Maneja faces years in the country's chronically overcrowded jails and log-jammed legal system. Charged with drug possession and using a weapon against a person in authority, which could see him sentenced to up to 20 years in jail, he has been refused bail and cannot afford a lawyer. Asked about shabu, Maneja said he will never touch the drug again. He said police have taken a statement from him about the shooting but "never asked too many questions".

Every night photojournalists speed through Manila's traffic to document the bodies piling up on the streets of one of Asia's largest cities. Their images have been published around the world and could eventually prove crimes against humanity have been committed under international law, lawyers say. Vincent Go, who works for UNCAN, the Union of Catholic Asian News, flicks through his mobile phone showing dozens of photographs of bodies. In one a distraught wife cradles her dead husband; in another the body is wrapped in tape with a cardboard sign saying "pusher"; in a third a body lies curled up in a bedroom with a sign on the door declaring support for Duterte. The victims include police who were accused of involvement in the drug trade. One policeman's body was found tied to a tree, in full uniform.

Death comes in different ways in this war. Some are killed in alleged gun battles with police or when supposedly resisting arrest. Some are killed by mystery assassins, their corpses left in streets or vacant lots, riddled with gun shots or stab wounds. Many have cardboard signs accusing them of involvement in drugs. And there are the motorcycle gunmen, riding in tandem, their faces camouflaged with helmets and scarves. A gunman usually walks up to the target, fires and then hops back on the bike to make his or her getaway. Often the killers hit a series of targets in quick succession in one area, and have been seen carrying photographs of their victims. There has been a surge recently in targets being abducted, tied up and driven to a dark area. They are pulled out of the vehicle, untied and shot dead as they try to run away.

No one has been charged for any of the killings. Just before 3am on Thursday, the graveyard shift journalists received a police message about shootings in a strip of red-light bars in the suburb of Baclaran, a short distance from Manila airport and James Packer's Crown casino. The photojournalists, who by now include Fairfax Media's veteran photographer Kate Geraghty, arrived at a scene that has been a nightly occurrence since Duterte was sworn into office. The body of a 21-year-old man lies under a blanket, only his hand visible. A few metres away the body of a 35-year-old man lies under a table in Joyuri's late night bar.

Witnesses saw two helmeted gunmen get off two motorbikes and walk into the bar where the men had been drinking. The killers fired at least three shots into each of them in what police described as a professional hit. Loading The killers then walked casually back to the bikes, which were being ridden by two other helmeted men, and sped away. Soon too, the photojournalists were back at police headquarters waiting for the call to document the next deaths in a war that Duterte insists will not end until every drug suspect surrenders, is caught or killed.