Duterte never ordered killing of drug suspects — PNP Chief

By Aaron Recuenco

President Duterte has nothing to do with anti-drug police operations that have, so far, left almost 5,000 suspected drug pushers and users dead since July 2016, the country’s top cop said Saturday.

PNP CHIEF DIR GEN. Oscar Albayalde (Mark Balmores / MANILA BULLETIN)

Director-General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, said how police operations are being planned and carried out are a result of Duterte’s instruction for a relentless campaign against illegal drugs.

“Those who were killed during the time of the President, most of them are common criminals and these are police operations,” said Albayalde.

“The President has nothing to do with these police operations because his only order is a relentless war against illegal drugs,” he added.

The Chief PNP was reacting to the remark of President Duterte on Thursday which caused a stir for being interpreted as his admission to ordering extra-judicial killings (EJKs) in the country.

Albayalde said critics of the administration are playing up the issue of EJK for their own respective political propaganda.

“The word EJK was abused. It was used and reused and used irresponsibly for the propaganda of some sector,” said Albayalde.

Based on the government data, a total of 4,854 drug personalities were killed while 155,193 others were arrested since July 2016, the start of the Duterte administration.

Based on the PNP data seen by The Manila Bulletin last May, almost 23,000 cases of killings were being investigated by the PNP since July 2016 under the Homicide Cases Under Investigation (HCUI) classification.

Even the crime data of the PNP would reveal an uptrend in the cases of murder and homicide, although almost all other types of crime such as robbery and carnapping have significantly reduced.

Critics have been accusing the PNP as also involved in extra-judicial killings, or those cases in which drug suspects were hunted down and killed by masked or motorcycle-riding men.

Albayalde, however, admitted that there were erring cops who also got involved in killing drug suspects.

Earlier, the PNP leadership said that some killings of drug suspects were perpetrated by erring cops in an attempt to cover up their tracks in the illegal drugs trade.
But Albayalde stressed that there is no order from the President to kill illegal drugs suspects to the PNP.

“In fairness to the President and even the former chief PNP Chief (Ronald) Bato dela Rosa, there is no order given to us to kill suspects, drug dependents even criminals,” said Albayalde.