The media are trying to keep track of the number of killings related to drugs in the past few weeks, but it seemed like their figures, as well official government figures, are lower than the number of summary killings to be validated by the authorities, according to Senator Panfilo Lacson.
GMA News Online reported that the former Philippine National Police chief said that he heard from “well-informed sources” within the organization that there are at least 600 suspected drug pushers and users who died of summary executions since Duterte’s inauguration on June 30 up to the month of July.
“Napag-alaman ko from well-informed sources sa loob ng PNP mismo, ang bilang nila ay 600 and they are trying to validate the 600 killings na summary killings talaga, dahil hindi police operations,” Lacson said.
He added that the PNP is scheduled to do the validation within the week in a workshop or conference.
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According to official PNP data, there were 402 drug suspects killed from July 1 to August 2. The same report also showed that there were 5,418 suspects who have been arrested and 565,806 others who surrendered.
GMA News Monitoring data showed that as of 3pm on August 3, there have been 440 cases of drug-related killings. 259 were killed during legitimate police operations, while 181 fell victim to unidentified suspects. Their data also showed that 239 were armed when shot dead.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Kill List showed that as of 12 pm of August 4, there were 524 drug suspects killed since June 30 and 571 fatalities since May 10. The list also contained the names of those who were killed and the circumstances surrounding their death.
Lacson said that he will ask incumbent PNP Police Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa about how many of these cases have been investigated and how many were killed by the vigilantes.
“So itatanong ko sa kanila (police), ilan ba among the 600 na summary executions ng mga unidentified o vigilante groups? Ilan doon ang nasimulan na ng investigation? Ilan ang meron na silang leads? Ilan yung meron na silang na-identify? At ilan na-file-an ng kaso o mafa-file-an ng kaso? Kung wala, malaki talaga ang problema natin,” he said.
He added that if the police failed to do something about the alleged summary killings, people might conclude that they are tolerating it, Inquirer reported.
“Whether they like it or not, ‘yan ang magiging perception. At the very least tino-tolerate nila. At worst, baka sila ang nag-sponsor. So dapat talaga ipakita nila iso-solve nila ang murder cases na ‘yan,” Lacson said.
Lacson labeled these cases as “murder” cases if they were perpetrated by ‘faceless’ individuals.
“For all intents and purposes, those are murder cases. Dahil hindi naman police ang nagsagawa at hindi naman sa police operations. Dahil maliwanag, killings ‘yan. So ‘pag killings at faceless individuals ang gumawa, talagang murder case ‘yan,” the Inquirer quoted Lacson saying.
Sources: (gmanetwork.com, newsinfo.inquirer.net)
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