Government lawyers on Tuesday scrambled for answer when a Supreme Court associate justice asked how many of the 3,806 killed in legitimate police operations were Chinese drug lords.

Solicitor General Jose Calida, who is defending the government’s war on drugs, admitted that only 419 Chinese nationals were arrested, not killed.

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“At what level are they? Users? Pushers? Chemists or drug lords,” Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio asked, to which Calida said, “They are a mixture. We do not know the exact role that they played.” /je

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