THE Palace claimed success in its bloody war on illegal drugs as the body count of suspected pushers and users climbed to nearly 3,000, including the sister of an actress who was found dead in Quezon City with gunshot wounds to the chest.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar insisted Sunday that many of those slain have been killed in “gang wars” and not by shadowy vigilantes encouraged by the President, as critics have alleged.
Duterte, who took office in June after winning election on a promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals, has vowed to press his campaign, despite growing international criticism.
“The police operations are a success. But there have also been gang wars or internecine [conflicts] where they eliminate each other,” Andanar said.
He said such killings were under investigation by the police.
Andanar was reacting to police reports showing that more than 41 people were being killed each day under the Duterte administration’s anti-crime campaign.
By the end of last week, at least 1,466 people have been killed by police in anti-drug operations since Duterte took office, police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos said.
Another 1,490 are classified as “deaths under investigation” referring to people murdered in suspicious circumstances, many of them shot by suspected vigilantes or found dead with crude signs labelling them drug-pushers or criminals.
The government has insisted that those killed by police died because they resisted arrest.
However, human rights groups charge that Duterte has been actively encouraging extrajudicial killings, telling police that he will protect them from punishment while urging civilians to kill drug pushers in their community.
The issue of the extrajudicial killings led to a spectacular falling out with US President Barack Obama when Duterte on Monday called the American leader “a son of a whore,” over the prospect that he would raise the issue during their meeting at a summit in Laos.
Obama canceled his meeting but later told the fiery Philippine leader in a brief encounter that he should conduct his crime war “the right way.”
United Nations officials, human rights groups, local Catholic Church leaders and some legislators have criticized Duterte’s harsh campaign, saying it is eroding rule of the law in the Philippines.
Andanar, in an interview over state-run radio dzRB, said the extrajudicial killings were “a cause for concern” because they do “not fall under the ambit of the law.”
Police reports said 16,025 drug pushers or users were arrested in 17,389 operations conducted between July 1 and Sept. 10.
The Philippine National Police said police visited suspected drug users in 900,814 houses to “encourage them to stop their illegal ways.”
The number of drug users and pushers who surrendered during the same period was 709,527, including 52,568 pushers.
The PNP also reported that it has filed 292 cases and arrested 185 suspects for vigilante-style killings.
Of the number of respondents in the cases filed, the PNP said a total of 107 are at-large and 185 have been arrested.
In Quezon City, police found the sister of actress Maritoni Fernandez, dead from gunshot wounds to the chest.
Quezon City Police District director Sr. Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar identified the victim as Ma. Aurora Moynihan, an alleged drug pusher to showbiz celebrities.
Moynihan was found at Temple Drive and Giraffe Street in Barangay Ugong Norte.
A cardboard saying “drug pusher ng mga celebrities kasunod na kayo was left beside her.
Several witnesses said Moynihan was taken to the area by some unidentified men onboard a Toyota Fortuner and that she was shot dead in the area. They then commandeered a van and drove off toward White Plains village.
At least five cartridges of .40-cal. bullets and four sachets of shabu were taken from the crime scene. The victim’s cell phone was also left at the scene.
In Calamba, Laguna, two suspected drug pushers were dead after a buy-bust operation in Barangay Makiling.
Calamba City chief of police Supt. Fernando Ortega said the two suspected pushers sensed that they were dealing with an officer during the buy-bust and opted to shoot it out with the police. With Rio N. Araja, Roy Tomandao, AFP
