MANILA, Philippines — Up to 560 drug suspects have been killed in alleged shootouts with anti-narcotics agents since March last year when the government imposed lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Latest data from the government’s Real NumbersPH platform shared by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) showed that 80,605 drug suspects were arrested during the same period.
On minors tagged in illegal drugs, 948 were rescued during the community quarantine.
At least 6,215 suspects have been killed and 315,635 were arrested in 218,665 law enforcement operations since President Duterte launched a war on drugs in 2016.
Among the 13,821 high-value targets who were arrested, 393 were elected officials, 508 were government employees and 124 uniformed personnel.
Also apprehended were 349 foreigners and 1,422 drug den maintainers.
The PDEA and other law enforcement agencies seized 19,127.65 kilos of shabu, cocaine and marijuana and 136,232 tablets of party drug Ecstasy nationwide worth P73.83 billion.
The agency said 23,270 barangays have been cleared of illegal drugs.