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The Philippine National Police (PNP) assured the public that there is nothing to be afraid of the government’s on-going war on drugs, said its spokesperson on Monday.

Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos said in a radio interview those who follow the law mustn’t worry.

PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa called those people who feel unsafe on their residence hypocrites and they must be involved in the illegal drug trade.

“Being a Filipino, being a resident of the community where they are living in, they are hypocrites if they will say that we will make a noise because we feel unsafe on our environment."

As of December 18, the PNP has recorded a total of 2,124 drug suspects were killed during the conduct of 39,358 anti-illegal drug operations since July 1 while a total of 4,049 victims were recorded from the total of 3,717 incidents of murder and homicide cases that was monitored for more than five months.

Carlos said those reported dead fall under murder and homicide or can be called index crimes.

He even cited examples that can fall under extrajudicial killings.

“Under extrajudicial killing, the victim should be a member of the non-governmental office, advocacy group or members of the media and they were killed because of their advocacy or causes,” Carlos explained.

Carlos said it is wrong to tag those killings as extrajudicial because those will fall in a death under investigation or a case of murder still pending investigation.

“So we asked them to be careful in using the (term) extra judicial killings, it does not represent the crime happening in the streets,” he said

If a certain case is considered extra judicial killing, it will be sent to Task Force USIG secretariat for investigation.

He also asked the public to help them in solving and preventing killings instead of criticizing. “Our key factor here is all of us, the Filipino people will help us and we will make sure the safety and security of them,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS