More than 3,000 killed in gov’t anti-drug operations from July 2016-June 2017: PDEA

June 9, 2017

More than 3,000 people were killed in the anti-drug operations of the government since July 2016 to June 2017, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said on Friday. PDEA Deputy General Isidro Lapena said the 3,116 who were killed fought with the authorities. Lapena said a total of 82,607 individuals were arrested in 61592 operations conducted nationwide. Over P12.10 billion worth of shabu and P18.01 billion worth of drugs were seized by the authorities during the operations, he said. Lapena said 280 government workers were arrested  related to drugs in which 119 were elected officials, 22 uniformed personnel and 138 were government employees from July 2016 to June 2017. Chief Superintendent Camilo Cascolan, director for operations of Philippine National Police, said  “out of the number that surrendered there are…2,984 recorded last week which are actually elected officials”. Cascolan said there were 12,426 recorded homicide cases from July 2016 to May 2017. He said 2,091 of these cases are drug-related, 2447 were non-drug related while 7888 are under investigation. Lapena said a total of 1,304,795 drug users surrendered since July 2016 to June 6, 2017. Wilma Diez  of the Department of Health (DOH) Dangerous Drugs Abuse Prevention and Treatment Program, said one percent of the total of those who surrendered can be categorized as severe, two to six percent are outpatients while 96 percent engaged in community-based programs. Diez said 1, 263 individuals were treated out of 2,041 individuals considered as severe cases while 65,696 drug users are undergoing community-based rehabilitation. There will be an additional of seven treatment and rehabilitation centers from the total of 46, Diez said. She said 299 doctors are conducting drug dependency evaluation while 41 doctors are on training. DOH is cooperating with Japan International Cooperation Agency for a research on relapse prevention program, Diez said. A drug rehabilitation facility is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to be built in Cavite province. The facility is expected to be finished by next year. The DOH has 44 drug rehabilitation centers in the country with a total bed capacity of 6,000. Lapena emphasized that the statistics released by PDEA summed up the operations conducted by different government agencies. Alanna Ambi/DMS