Rivals inflating death toll in drug war — Duterte
Number of police officers killed during anti-drug operations has reached 85, president says
Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has criticised opposition party for allegedly inflating the death toll in the government’s ongoing crackdown on drug peddlers and users.
The president said the international community was being fed erroneous information to vilify his administration.
The President said figures provided by the political opposition (the Liberal Party and other anti-Duterte coalition groups) are far from the true numbers of fatalities in the anti-drug campaign.
Duterte said, in his first year as president, the number of anti-drug operations carried out by security forces had reached 70,854, with a total of 3,811 people killed during this period.
“These are legitimate encounters duly recorded,” he said, citing figures of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
He said the number of law enforcement officers killed during encounters with drug suspects was indicative that the killings are not state sponsored.
“The number of police officers killed during operations has reached 85, while those wounded number 215,” he said, adding that he had to set the record straight on this matter if only to provide the people with accurate information.
Aside from policemen killed in the line of duty in the anti-drug drive, soldiers who died in similar operations number 146, while those wounded have been tallied at 2,592.
