Deaths in gov’t war on drugs top 5,000: PDEA

December 19, 2018

The official death toll due to President Rodrigo Duterte's war against drugs exceeded 5,000,  an official report said Tuesday.

  Data as of November 30 from the Philippine Drug Agency (PDEA) showed that from July 1, 2016 when the administration implemented the anti-drug campaign to November 30 of this year, 5,050 "drug personalities" died during police operations.

  Most casualties were reported to have resisted arrest before getting killed. Compared to last year's data, 51 individuals were added to the count.

  But Human Rights Watch, a rights group, published a report stating more than 12,000 suspected drug users and dealers have died.

  PDEA said out of the total 115, 435 anti-drug operations conducted, 164,265 individuals were arrested. This means 1,865 more operations were done, with the number of arrests exceeding by 2,681 last year's data.

  PDEA's disclosed that overall, authorities seized around a total of three tons of methampetamine or shabu worth 18.43 billion pesos.

  In 42,044 targeted barangays, around 22,641 are still yet to be cleared. 

  A part of the government's initiative is to offer drug dependents to undergo treatment or recovery and wellness program (RWP).

A total of around 600,000 individuals graduated from RWP of which 303.533 were surrenderees, 151,385 from Philippine National Police (PNP) initiated RWP and 152, 148 from community centers.  Cristina Eloisa Baclig/DMS