A total of 4,251 drug personalities have been killed as part of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, Philippine government officials said on Monday, May 7.
The data was presented by the Philippine National Police (PNP) at its Camp Crame headquarters in Quezon City during a briefing on its #RealNumbersPH campaign.
Presenting the data was former PNP chief of operations and current National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director, Camilo Cascolan, who added that 142,069 drug suspects were arrested as part of 98,799 police operations recorded from July 1, 2016 to April 20, 2018.
Cascolan authored the PNP’s infamous Oplan Tokhang and Oplan Double Barrel.
Referring to the government’s Recovery and Wellness Program (RWP), Cascolan said that 184,252 drug surrenders were graduates of the program — 79,099 from the PNP-initiated RWP, and 105,153 from supported community centers.
Of the PNP’s own personnel, the numbers from the PNP Internal Affairs Service counted 302 uniformed personnel and eight non-uniformed personnel as having tested positive for illegal drugs — 265 have been dismissed from service.
Of government workers, 504 were arrested, comprising of 239 government employees, 217 elected officials, and 48 uniformed personnel.
Cascolan said that 2,676 kilos of shabu — the slang term for crystal meth — were seized, totaling PHP13.81 billion or over $265 million.
In total, PHP20.23 billion worth of drugs and laboratory equipment have been seized.
Number wars
The Philippine Drug Enforcement (PDEA) and the PNP held its first “RealNumbersPH” forum in May of last year in an attempt to quash claims that Duterte’s controversial war on drugs is as deadly as international and local rights groups and media make it out to be.
After criticisms on the numerous killings of drug suspects, the PNP was twice removed from leading the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign. But in December of last year, Duterte reinstated them back to the frontline to support the PDEA.
With the resulting death toll being central to the condemnation of the president and his administration, rights groups and lawyers have since been critical of the accuracy of its numbers, saying they are way too low. Human Rights Watch, among others, hold the count of people killed by police in the administration’s war on drugs to be closer to around 12,000.
But those behind the forum say they’ve been nothing but transparent about their findings, blaming human rights groups and political agendas of the president’s opponents for causing obscurity.
“Despite significant gains, many side issues — and to some extent — delivery of this information, continue to obscure the true picture of our anti-drug operations, often mislabeling the pure and good intention of the campaign with human rights issues and political undertones,” said PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde as he opened up Monday’s forum.
Last month, members of the European Parliament called on the Philippine government to stop the extrajudicial killings, while expressing concern that the police had been “falsifying evidence to justify extrajudicial killings.”
Albayalde responded, telling the European Parliament to show proof of the 12,000 killed under the drug crackdown by having the victims listed “one-by-one.”
Yet despite criticism, Albayalde said Monday that the PNP was “winning” the war on drugs.
To reporters, he said, “It is really hard to quantify but with what we see in its effects, we know that we are winning this war on drugs.”
He added, “There are less street pushers. The situation was not like before that buying drugs on the street was like buying a cigarette. It translates to lower crime volume all over the Philippines but on a personal note, maybe this more or less half.”
The PNP did not say Monday how many of those reported to be facing drug charges have been cleared or convicted.
