His article reported that since the beginning of July, about 2,000 people had been killed by the police and that there had been more than 3,500 unsolved killings in the country. These figures match the numbers given to the news media by a Philippine police spokesman, Dionardo Carlos.

Mr. Andanar said that about a third of the unsolved killings had been identified as drug-related.

“The rest are murder and homicide cases perpetrated by riding-in-tandem gunmen which the Philippine National Police (P.N.P.) is now investigating, the results of which will be made public in due time,” he said in the statement.