7 cops, 3 soldiers dead, 32 hurt in war on drugs – PNP

MANILA — Ten security personnel – seven police officers and three soldiers – have been killed since July 1, the first day of the Duterte administration and the official start of its aggressive war on drugs, the Philippine National Police.

Figures released by the PNP National Operation Center in Camp Crame also showed that, as of 6 a.m. Friday, October 31, 32 others – 24 police and eight troops – wounded.

The numbers are way below President Rodrigo Duterte’s earlier claim that two policemen die each day battling drug syndicates.

Duterte came to power mainly on a promise to stamp out drugs and criminality within the first six months of his presidency. He has since asked for double that time to “minimize” the problem.

Since he came to office, the latest tallies show the number of deaths in the war on drugs inching closer to 4,000, 1,682 of these “neutralized” in what police call “legitimate operations,” the rest, labeled “deaths under investigation,” including drive-by shootings by “riding in tandem” gunmen and vigilante-style executions who victims, often wrapped in tape with placards proclaiming their alleged crimes, dumped on the streets.

The PNP said it had mounted 31,633 anti-drug operations since July 1. Aside from the deaths, these operations also led to the arrest of 30,509 drug suspects.

On the other hand, police visited 2,373,833 houses through Oplan Tokhang and convinced 748,277 alleged drug users and pushers to turn themselves in to authorities.

Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos, explaining the use of “neutralized” instead of “killed” to described those slain in police operations, said this was because “there is no intention of the police to kill the suspects but only to neutralize the threat directed at the peace officers.”

There have, however, been cases of policemen accused of executing suspects and, in one case in Mindoro, of a town police chief and a decorated officer murdering an anti-crime crusader.