83 cops killed in war against drugs

A total of 83 officers were killed and 238 were wounded since the Philippine National Police (PNP) took the lead on the government’s war on drugs in July last year.

Director Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, head of the Directorate for Operations, said the casualties were the result of the more than 71,000 police operations conducted from July 1 last year to October 10 this year.

“Our data also showed that there were 112,086 drug pushers and users arrested while 3,933 others died during the police operations,” said Cascolan.

“A total of 49,994 surrenders-minors were also recorded,” he added, even as he disclosed that there were some 1.2 million drug pushers and users who surrendered since July 1 last year.

Police also seized 7,280 firearms and 483explosive devices during operations.

Cascolan, quoting the data on those who surrendered in the war on drugs, said 1,172,579 of them were male while 87,194 were female were registered into the list.

“Also, the data showed that 648,335 personalities were unemployed and 260,113 were self-employed based on the thorough assessment of the authorities,” said Cascolan.

In addition, 8,566 High Value Targets (HVTs) were recorded, and 3,485 prominent drug targets have surrendered.

The official said that among the most common illegal drugs confiscated were shabu, marijuana and ecstasy.

Cascolan said the PNP was able to dismantle a number of clandestine drug laboratories, including those in Valenzuela City, Magalang town of Pampanga; Cauayan City in Isabela, and Virac town in Catanduanes.

The biggest of the drug labs was in Barangay San Juan, Bano, Arayat, Pampanga, according to Cascolan.

The PNP anti-drug effort achieved a 96.49-percent accomplishment rate, he said.