Philippine police ‘reload’, rejoin drug war

MANILA: The Philippine police chief said on Monday his forces had “reloaded” and were back fighting their president’s deadly war on drugs, just over a month after they were withdrawn because of widespread corruption.

President Rodrigo Duterte said in late January he had suspended all police from his crackdown on illegal drugs, which has claimed more than 6,500 lives, after describing them as “rotten to the core”.

National police chief Ronald Dela Rosa said reforms had been implemented to ensure there was no repeat of previous problems, which included anti-drugs officers kidnapping and murdering a South Korean businessman.

“The war on drugs is on, and this time it is going to be more extensive, aggressive and well-coordinated, with built-in systems that guarantee full accountability and instil internal discipline among all personnel,” Dela Rosa said.

Philippine authorities had originally named the drug war “Double Barrel”, in a reference to a two-pronged strategy of police fighting the drug war on the streets while also focusing on “high value” targets.

“Today we are going to relaunch the war on drugs, we’ve relaunched our project: Double Barrel Reloaded,” Dela Rosa said at a speech at national police headquarters in Manila. An accompanying police statement announcing the new campaign also named it as “Double Barrel Reloaded”.

Dela Rosa said in the statement there had been a “resurgence” in the drugs trade while police had been suspended.