Amidst international criticism of human rights violations involving as many as 3,000 drug related killings since President Rodrigo Duterte took office on July 1, the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Saturday issued its latest report containing the government’s official position on deaths from Duterte’s war on drugs. The report stated that under the nationwide Oplan Double Barrel, 1,138 “drug personalities” have been killed in legitimate police operations, while another 1,700 deaths have occurred which are not classified as legitimate and are under investigation. The second group of deaths, the PNP claimed, represent unsanctioned, illegal actions by vigilantes, drug lords and rogue policemen. The report, covering the period July 1 to 6AM September 17, also claimed 17,319 arrests had been made.
Separately, on Sunday at a press conference in Davao, Duterte announced that he had underestimated the depths of the drug problem during the campaign, and that he will need six more months to win victory in his war on drugs. ““That self-imposed time of three to six months, I did not realize how severe the problem of the drug menace in this republic until I became president. When I started to press everybody, it’s like worm out of the can. . . Just give me little extension of maybe another six months. I did not have any idea that there were hundreds of thousands already in the drug business. What makes it worse is they are operated now by people in the government.”
Duterte claimed that the list of government officials with alleged links to narcotics is “thick” and contains about 1,000 names. “The problem is I can’t kill them all. Even if I wanted to, I can’t kill them all because the last report would be this thick.” he said in a press conference Sunday night in Davao.
Both developments come as the Philippines reacts to Senate testimony by a self-professed hitman, Edgar Matobato, that he participated in 50 extrajudicial killings in Davao, Mindanao, between 1988 and 2013, many of which were allegedly orderd by then mayor Duterte. More hearings are scheduled for next week.
The PNP report also claimed that under a separate operation known as Oplan Tokhang, the PNP had visited 1,029,328 houses. Under Tokhang, police personnel “knock on the doors of suspected drug users and convince them to stop their illegal ways.” According to the PNP, under this project, 661,200 drug users and 53,017 drug pushers have surrendered.