Although demoted from the lead role in President Duterte’s war on drugs, the Philippine National Police still welcomes the Pulse Asia poll that found majority of Filipinos support the crackdown on narcotics.

The PNP, however, is sad about the finding that most Filipinos believe policemen are responsible for extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the campaign.

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Public anger over the killings pulled down Mr. Duterte’s poll ratings, forcing him last week to remove the PNP from the lead role in his brutal war on drugs.

The Pulse Asia survey, which was conducted during the last week of September, found that 88 percent of Filipinos supported the war on drugs, although 73 percent believed state forces—policemen and soldiers—were responsible for extrajudicial killings.

More than 3,800 people have been killed by police in drug raids since Mr. Duterte launched the antinarcotics campaign last year.

Thousands more have been killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen, whom human rights groups believe are hired guns working for the police or policemen working for rewards that come with the campaign.

‘Homicides’

The PNP refers to those killings as “homicide cases under investigation.”

PNP records show that from Sept. 15 to Oct. 18, there were 572 new homicide cases under investigation across the country, which means around 17 violent deaths in a day during that period.

Commenting at a press conference on Thursday on the Pulse Asia finding, Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, spokesperson for the PNP, said the public seemed to be confused about the term “extrajudicial killing.”

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He pointed out that the PNP only characterized an incident as an EJK based on the definition in Administrative Order No. 35 issued in 2012 by President Benigno Aquino III.

The order, he said, defines extrajudicial killings as slayings where the victims are journalists or members of activist groups who have been killed because of their work or advocacies.

Carlos expressed hope that the term was explained thoroughly to the 1,200 survey respondents, adding that policemen involved in killings are immediately investigated and charged.

“We cannot say that these few incidents reflect the entire number of incidents. We cannot generalize it as the term they have been using,” he said.

No law on EJK

“Homicide,” he said, is used as a generic term for killings because it is in the Revised Penal Code.

“We do not have any law to use that term (extrajudicial killing) that they are using,” he said.

Carlos gave assurance, however, that the PNP was focused on solving the homicides, which numbered 10,354 from July 2016 to Oct. 18, 2017.

The figure provided by the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management increased from 9,782 from July 2016 to Sept. 15, 2017.

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