MANILA – At least 400 personnel from various law enforcement agencies have been dismissed from the service for drug-related offenses, a Philippine National Police (PNP) official said Friday.
During the Real Numbers press briefing in Malacañang, PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Benigno Durana Jr. said 267 personnel have been removed for drug use and 95 personnel for other drug-related offenses as a result of the internal cleansing in different law enforcement agencies.
Durana, on the other hand, said 59 police personnel had been fired, 778 had been exonerated, and 2,438 cases had been dismissed from July 1, 2016 to July 31, 2018.
“This alone will more or less communicate to the public that we do not tolerate misfits and scalawags in our campaign against illegal drugs,” he said.
“Our war on drugs has its good intentions. We don’t want it to be marred by irregularities attendant to the police operations of some of our personnel. So we’ll be hard on them, weeding out misfits and scalawags because our war on drugs has its very good intentions,” he added.
Durana said the scalawags in uniform have been significantly reduced “if not totally” eradicated.
Meanwhile, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) spokesperson and deputy director Ferdinand Lavin said a total of 569 government workers, including 243 elected officials and 58 uniformed personnel, have been arrested in the past two years.
Lavin said the combined forces of the PNP, NBI and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) have so far conducted 105,658 anti-illegal drug operations, including 3,028 from June 30 to July 31 this year.
He said the operations have resulted in the arrest of 152,123 drug personalities and the rescue of 1,258 minors since President Rodrigo Duterte began his relentless war on drugs in July 2016.
The total value of drugs seized by different law enforcement agencies has reached PHP21.48 billion, including 2,575.77 kg. of “shabu” (crystal meth) worth PHP14.79 billion.
A total of 8,215 barangays have been declared drug-free while 221 drug dens have been dismantled, according to #RealNumbersPH data.
Durana said the number of deaths due to police anti-illegal drug operations has reached more than 4,800 as of August 16.
He said the average of deaths per week has decreased from 105 to only 23 per week since the PNP adjusted its campaign in response to complaints aired by human rights groups.
“I think, this figure would tell us that while we can be relentless and chilling, as much as possible, we also would want it to be less bloody,” Durana said.
“Meaning, we are improving. We are making sure that, you know, we are also very sensitive. We are one in protecting and upholding human rights and constitutional rights, not only of the accused but also of our law enforcers,” he added.
Durana said 87 drug law enforcers “have laid down their lives” while 200 others were injured in anti-drug operations. (PNA)
