Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said Tuesday the Social Weather Station survey which stated three out of five Filipinos agree only poor drug pushers were killed is "true".

"It is true. There are more poor drug pushers than those who are rich. You have to understand the structure of drug pyramid...There is only one drug lord up then down the line... in the street pushing level they are all poor", Dela Rosa said in an ambush interview after the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the PNP and Light Rail Transit Authority .

"When the police conduct a buy bust operation, most likely we will get the poor drug pushers. We are talking about numbers, there are more poor people that (are) involved in pushing", he added.

The SWS survey conducted on June 23 to 26, 2017 said 60 percent of the Filipinos agreed in the statement that "Rich drug pushers are not killed; only the poor ones are killed". Twenty-three percent of the respondents disagreed and 17 percent were undecided.

When asked how will he defend that the PNP can only kill the poor drug pushers, Dela Rosa said, " Is Parojinog (Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo) poor? Is the mayor of Albuera Leyte (Rolando Espinosa) poor?".

He said no one will get killed during a police operation if none of the suspects will fight back.

"If no one will fight back, no one will die. Until there are individuals fighting back there is a chance that someone will be killed either the one fighting back or the police that was being fought", Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa said the PNP has caught many big drug personalities. Alanna Ambi/DMS