The Philippines’ national police chief yesterday said that about 1,900 people had been killed during a crackdown on illegal drugs, which began seven weeks ago when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took power, but about 40 were not drug-related.
The number provided by Philippine Director-General Ronald dela Rosa at a Senate hearing was higher than the 1,800 deaths he gave at the hearing on Monday.
He gave no explanation for the higher number, but said the figures were updated.
Photo: Reuters
It means that on average, 35 people have been killed each day since Duterte came to power.
Dela Rosa said that about 750 of the people were killed in police operations against drug peddlers.
The other deaths were being investigated, he said.
“Not all deaths under investigation are drug-related,” Dela Rosa said, adding that 40 killings were known to be due to enmity or robbery.
Nearly 700,000 drug users and drug peddlers have turned themselves in to escape the crackdown, Dela Rosa said.
He said there was a decrease in overall crime, although murders and homicides had increased.
Duterte was voted to power promising to wipe out drugs and warning traffickers they risked death if they did not mend their ways.
The inquiry is being conducted by a staunch critic of the president, Philippine Senator Leila de Lima, who has summoned top police and anti-narcotics officials to explain the “unprecedented” rise in the body count.
Duterte responded by warning legislators not to interfere with his campaign.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS