7,800 Philippine police punished for drug killings
MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of Philippine police officers have received administrative punishments, with more than 2,000 dismissed for wrongdoing during raids where drug suspects were killed under the president’s crackdown, officials said Thursday.
Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Rafael Banaag told a news conference that 14,724 police were investigated for their involvement in police drug operations that led to deaths from July 2016 until last April. She said 7,867 of them received administrative punishments for unspecified lapses.
A tally presented by Banaag showed that 2,367 police officers were fired and 4,100 suspended, with the rest reprimanded, demoted or having their salaries forfeited.
Banaag did not say how many officers have been criminally charged for serious lapses or outright crimes committed while enforcing the crackdown, which was launched by President Rodrigo Duterte as his centerpiece program when he took office in mid-2016.
Philippine police officials say about 6,600 drug suspects have been killed in raids carried out by the police, mostly in gun battles that occurred after the suspects fought back and endangered the lives of law enforcers. Banaag and other officials reported a lower death toll, more than 5,500, saying authorities were still verifying other drug-related deaths.
Last year, a Philippine court found three police officers guilty of killing a student they alleged was a drug dealer in the first known such conviction under the crackdown.
The court ruled the officers murdered Kian Loyd delos Santos during a raid in Caloocan city’s slums in the Manila metropolis and rejected the policemen’s claim that the 17-year-old fired back while resisting arrest. Delos Santos’ family and witnesses testified in official investigations that he was shot in a dark alley near a creek as he pleaded for his life.
Delos Santos’ killing and that of a South Korean who allegedly was strangled by anti-drug officers in an extortion attempt prompted Duterte to briefly suspend the drug crackdown amid outcries.