More than 3,000 people have been killed in President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug war, with vigilantes causing more deaths than the police in a short period

The Philippine National Police said Saturday 1,466 suspected drug peddlers and users were killed in 17,389 police operations since July 1 until 6 am.

Meanwhile, 16,025 people have been arrested while 709,527 composed of 52,568 suspected pushers and 656,959 users surrendered to the police.

Gunmen killed 1,935 people from July to 4 pm Thursday, September 8. This means 3,401 persons have been killed since Duterte became president.

Police have arrested 185 suspects. A manhunt is ongoing for 107 others. Meanwhile, 292 cases were filed by police related to the killings before courts.

Duterte defended his brutal crackdown on illegal drugs before his counterparts at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Laos.

In previous speeches, he even called on the public to kill drug traffickers in exchange for reward money.

In a press conference at the Davao International Airport on Saturday, Duterte said his statements threatening criminals "is never wrong. I repeat, it is never wrong to threaten criminals." .

"As far as I’m concerned, as your president and a lawyer, that I have every right to threaten criminals. How it develops to the endgame is another problem," he added. Emmanuel Tupas