Reports that up to 7,000 victims have died in the campaign against illegal drugs in the Philippines are “irritating” because of their inaccuracy, the country’s police chief said yesterday.
Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said the national police have, so far, only recorded 6,011 homicide cases from July 1 to March 24. Of those, only 23.2% were found to be drug-related.
The majority of the cases, 63%, were unresolved and no motive for the killing has not been established, he added.
Various international news organisations and human rights groups have been reporting that the number of victims killed in the Philippines’ drug war has reached — or even surpassed — 7,000, and that many were killed without due process.
But Dela Rosa said the figure was “much sensationalised and misinterpreted.”
“We just want to disprove the persistent and irritating claim by some sectors that there are 7,000 extra-judicial killings (in the government’s drug war),” Dela Rosa told a press conference where he released the police statistics. “I would like to emphasise that the homicides that we are currently investigating are not necessarily the direct result of our ongoing anti-drug campaign,” he said. Earlier statistics released by police showed that, from July 1 to the last week of January, a total of 2,512 suspected drug pushers and users were killed in police operations.
Another 2,928 victims of deaths under investigation were recorded from July 1 to December 15. Police have not been releasing new data of deaths under investigation, usually referring to abandoned bodies.
That figure is separate from those for people killed in police actions. Those count another 60 suspected drug pushers and users killed by police since March 6, when the anti-drug operations resumed after a one-month suspension.
Despite criticisms against the drug war, President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to push through with the campaign until the last drug lord in the Philippines is dead. Duterte’s allies have accused international media of destabilising his administration with negative reports about the drug war.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella accused the New York Times of coming up with a “demolition work” against Duterte after it published a news feature, wrote an editorial and released a video documentary in a span of one week.
“The newspaper tries to stir global outrage in a nation that welcomes its newfound peace and order,” he said.”One can only conclude that certain personalities and politicians have mounted a well-funded campaign utilising hack writers and their ilk in their bid to oust President Duterte.”


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