7 cops, 3 soldiers killed in 4 months

MANILA – Latest data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed that contrary to President Rodrigo Duterte's claim that he loses two policemen a day to anti-drug operations, the police force lost 7 personnel in less than four months.

This is less than the 9 dead from July 1 to August 18 earlier reported by the PNP to the Senate, as they later found that two of the deceased policemen were part of a drug syndicate.

From July 1 to October 26, the PNP said, a total of seven were killed during drug-related operations, while 24 were wounded.

In the Armed Forces, meanwhile, three were killed in action, while eight were wounded in anti-drug operations during the same period.

If the president's statement (2 cops daily) were correct, the total number of policemen killed since he assumed office should be 236 (as of Oct. 26); instead, the correct figure is 7.

The PNP’s data also showed that a total of 1,725 were killed in anti-drug operations conducted from July 1 to October 26 of this year, with a total of 31,629 arrests made during 32, 909 anti-drug operations.

Meanwhile, a total of 751,703 surrendered as part of Oplan Tokhang, which included 54,702 alleged drug pushers and 697,001 supposed drug users, the police said.

On Thursday evening, Duterte said that the country could expect about 20,000 to 30,000 more deaths during the administration’s war on drugs, if he fails to rid the country of the drug problem.

The ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, monitored 2,210 drug-related killings from May 10 to October 27, 2016, with 1,268 killed during police operations and 782 targeted by unidentified assailants.