A TOTAL of 4,999 drug suspects have already been killed in 27 months of President Duterte’s relentless anti-illegal drugs campaign, according to government data released during a #RealNumbersPH forum at Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, Tuesday.
The figure was recorded by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which serves as the lead government agency in Duterte’s drug war operations, from July 1, 2016 to October 31, 2018, PDEA Director Derrick Carreon said.
The data showed that 51 suspects were killed in one month since the previous figure had 4,948 deaths monitored as of September 31, 2018, he added.
Chief Superintendent Benigno Durana Jr., PNP spokesperson, admitted that there are about 26,000 to 30,000 deaths under investigation (DUIs).
He, however, clarified that not all of these cases are related to the drug war as some of them are “simple homicide cases.” He said only about 2,000 cases are probably related to illegal drug activities, such as drug syndicates killing alleged pushers for failing to remit drug money.
“Nagpapatayan sila. It’s a lie by some quarters insisting this 30,000 DUIs are related to police operations. We’ve been very transparent and truthful, that we have 4,999 [suspects] who died in legitimate police operations,” Durana said.
To say that all the deaths under investigation are related to police operations is “probably a lie,” according to the PNP spokesperson.
Aside from that, 161,584 suspects have been arrested in 113,570 anti-drug operations. The number of arrested suspects increased by 3,160 in one month.
Exactly 600 arrested suspects were in government: 278 were government employees; 257 were elected government officials and 65 uniformed personnel.
The drug war also resulted in the seizure of P25.06 billion worth of illegal drugs, majority of which are methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu (P18.31 billion). (Martin Sadongdong)
