5,526 killed in three-year war on drugs: gov't
A total of 5,526 drug personalities were killed during the Duterte administration’s three-year war against illegal drugs.
In a press briefing, Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Rafael said from July 1, 2016 up to June 30, 2019, authorities conducted 134, 583 anti-drug operations where 5,526 drug personalities were killed.
Of the total operations, 193,086 drug personalities were arrested where 7,054 were high-valued targets and 681 were government workers.
Rafael said showing the arrests of high value targets is proof the campaign against illegal drugs of the government is not “anti-poor”.
“This is to show that the government’s war on drugs is not anti-poor with the arrest of high-value targets,” she said.
Rafael said as of April 30, the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service conducted 4,583 motu propio investigation where 3,619 were elevated to summary hearing proceedings, 352 underwent pre-charge investigations and 588 dropped.
Of the total investigations, 14,724 cases were filed against PNP officers and personnel.
Rafael said as of May 20, 7,867 administrative cases were resolved where 4,100 police officers were suspended, 2,367 were dismissed from service, 617 were reprimanded, 472 demoted, 75 were withhold of privileges, and 41 were restricted.
Police Lt.Colonel Kimberly Molitas, PNP deputy spokesperson, said the decrease in the number of deaths in police operations is due to the vetting process by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
“This may bring confusion on the card data which was being floated by the Philippine National Police and let us not be confused… the numbers of all operations that we conducted in the PNP, we submitted to PDEA having the mandate by law to check our drug operations hence that’s why the real numbers have different data on what we have in the PNP,” she said.
PNP data said around 6,600 drug suspects were killed in police operations.
On the drug-cleared barangays, Molitas said they cleared 13,753 barangays out of the total 42,045 barangays.
Authorities also dismantled 348 dens and clandestine laboratories. They also seized a total value of illegal drugs amounting to 34.75 billion.
Molitas said a total of 421, 275 surrenderees underwent the government’s recovery and wellness programs.
She said that not all who surrendered were required to undergo recovery program under their organization.
“As agreed upon by the Department of Health, not all who surrendered from us needs to submit for rehabilitation. Some of them were submitted to Non-government organizations, church or programs created by local government unit to help them recovered from their addiction,” said Molitas.
According to Presidential Human Rights Committee executive director Severo Catura, during the United Nations Human Rights Council Summit, the administration presented the same data to the representatives and they were surprised to see the data.
Catura said even the UN admitted that deaths during administration’s drug war is only around 5,000 compared to the 27,000 deaths first reported.
“We tend to victimize the perpetrators but where is their victim?... We all started with the 27,000 and we need to clarify that and that is the reason for now, no less than the High Commission for Human Rights (Michelle) Bachelet had finally agreed that the death is not 27,000. It’s the 5,000 we are talking about,” he said.
He said the latest survey showing that President Rodrigo Duterte is still the most trusted government official shows that people appreciate his “war on drugs”. Ella Dionisio/DMS
