PNP on HRW report: 'Drug war' deaths increased by 5%, not 50%, amid pandemic
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police on Friday denied the report of a human rights watchdog which said that extrajudicial killings linked to the Duterte adminisration's anti-drug campaign increased by half amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP director for deputy administration, disputed the analysis released by New York-based Human Rights Watch, claiming during an interview with ANC's "Headstart" that it was "not supported by data."
In the report, HRW Asia division researcher Carlos Conde said that government's own statistics revealed that police killed 50% more people from April to July 2020 during anti-drug operations than they did in the previous quarter.
“When it was presented to the media, I saw that it was 50%, and I was confused. But when our director for operations presented this a day or two after that, I looked at it. I saw that 5% or 4.74% was the increase in those who died of police operation so its very different. It's too far off," Eleazar said partially in Filipino.
Malacañang similarly dismissed HRW's analysis, with Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar alleging that it had "weak methodological anchor and severely falsifies realities in the country."
HRW: Analysis based on government's own data
In response, HRW Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson on Thursday stressed that the figures used by the group came from government sources.
The dispatch in question found that 155 people were killed in the past four months compared to the 103 people killed from December 2019 to March 2020, marking an increase of 52 deaths or 50.49%.
"The analysis is based on the official government figures published by #RealNumbersPH, which is issued by the Presidential Communications Operations Office based on figures coming from different government agencies involved in the 'war on drugs,' mainly the [PNP] and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency," Robertson said.
According to Robertson, these figures were not difficult to find.
"Instead of playing its usual silly 'shoot the messenger' game by attacking critics, and trying to introduce distracting arguments, we advise the PCOO and the PNP chief General Camilo Cascolan to look at their own numbers again," he said, adding that the 50% estimate is low.
"Human Rights Watch did not introduce any new figures in the dispatch. Everything in it was based on #RealNumbersPH," he further emphasized.
Newly-minted PNP chief General Camilo Cascolan has denied that these EJKs ever occured but has also said that police officers died during anti-drug operations. The PNP's own data recognizes 5,810 persons killed in these operations as of the end of July 2020, although police routinely parrot the narrative that drug suspects fought back violently and forced their hand.
However, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights logged over 8,600 people who have died in Duterte’s “drug war,” while multiple rights groups in the Philippines place their estimates as high as 30,000.
Despite this, only one EJK case has resulted in a conviction.
"Cascolan can achieve much in two months, he has always been part of the government's plan in the war on drugs," Eleazar said Friday.
After dismissing HRW's findings, Eleazar shifted to praising what he called the accomplishments of this administration's much-criticized anti-drug campaign.
"There have been more accomplishments. Millions of shabu confiscated. Instead of focusing on the street level which has been constricted and controlled because of the pandemic, we had the oppurtunity to run after those big fish during this pandemic," he said partially in Filipino. — with reports from Franco Luna
READ: Despite police claims, drug war killings continue amid COVID-19 lockdown — int'l rights monitor | Casualties of Rody's war
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