POLICE RECORD 6K HOMICIDE CASES
But figure does not include fatalities in PNP’s antiillegal drug operations
The Philippine National Police (PNP) said it recorded only 6,011 homicide cases, including the drug-related killings, since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in July 2016.
Of the total, 1,398 or 23.2 percent (roughly one in four cases), were related to illegal drugs while six out of 10 cases, or 3,785, were being investigated to determine whether they were related to illegal drug operations. Only 828, or 13.8 percent, were not drug-related.
The 6,011 homicide cases, however, do not include those killed during the anti-illegal drug operations of the police.
Augusto Marquez, PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) director, said 2,555 suspected drug personalities were killed while more than 53,000 were arrested during their anti-illegal drug operations from July 1 last year to Jan. 31 this year.
A total of 43,593 anti-illegal drug police operations were conducted for the period.
From March 6 to 26, after the relaunch of the PNP’s anti-illegal drug operations, 60 drug personalities were killed while 4,160 were arrested. A total of 2,613 anti-illegal drug operations were conducted.
In releasing the data, PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa said they want to correct the information that there were at least 7,000 cases of killings attributed to the war against illegal drugs.
“We just want to disprove claim by some sectors that there were 7,000 EJKs (extrajudicial killings) so that the public would not be misled,” he said.
“Hindi kami nagpapapogi. Hindi kami nagpopropaganda. Hindi kami nagmi-mislead. Gusto namin to set the record straight, i- correct ‘ yung maling report so that the Filipino and international community cannot be misled by false reporting (This is not propaganda. We are not trying to mislead. We just want to set the record straight),” he added.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) defines EJKs as “unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by officials, by order of a government or with its complicity or acquiescence.”
In its most recent report, released in January this year, AI said “there have been more than 7,000 drug-related killings, with the police directly killing at least 2,500 alleged drug offenders.”
The PNP’s anti-illegal drug operations were halted in February on orders of President Duterte following the controversy generated by the abduction and killing of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo inside Camp Crame, the police headquarters.
Some police and National Bureau of Investigation officials were implicated in the crime.
The police were allowed to rejoin the administration’s war on illegal drugs after a month. On March 6, the PNP launched its Oplan Double Barrel Reloaded.