566 drug suspects slain since March 2020

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 566 drug suspects were killed in alleged shootouts with anti-narcotics officers during the community quarantine.

Latest data from the government’s Real NumbersPh platform as of Nov. 30, shared by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Monday afternoon, showed that 84,899 drug suspects were arrested in 58,972 law enforcement operations since President Duterte imposed lockdown restrictions in March last year to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Seventy-seven elected officials, 155 government employees and 39 uniformed personnel tagged in illegal drugs were among those arrested during the community quarantine.

Up to 1,001 minors ages four to 17 who are allegedly involved in illegal drugs were rescued during the community quarantine.

At least 6,221 drug suspects have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs in 2016, 5,655 before the community quarantine started in March 2020.

The government said 319,929 other suspected drug offenders were arrested in 221,657 operations since 2016, including 13,996 high-value targets.

Among them were 394 elected officials, 511 government employees, 126 uniformed personnel, 349 foreigners, 1,449 alleged drug den maintainers and 75 members of armed groups.

Also, 1,031 minors suspected to be involved in the illegal drug trade were rescued.

Authorities seized across the country 19,648.87 kilos of shabu, marijuana and cocaine and 149,138 tablets of the party drug Ecstasy valued at P74.30 billion.

The government has cleared 23,686 barangays nationwide of illegal drugs.