MANILA, Philippines — The 50 police officers killed in the crossfire during the drug war prove that some drug suspects put up a fight to resist arrest, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said Monday.
In a press briefing at Camp Crame, Albayalde said the PNP mourns the death of Senior Master Sergeant Conrado Cabigao, the latest fatality in the drug war from the government side.
“Fifty police officers killed is perhaps the painful proof that our detractors need for them to accept the fact that slain drug suspects indeed put up violent resistance to evade the law. Or do they want more dead lawmen to convince them some more? ” Albayalde said, citing data from July 2016 to June 2019.
Cabigao, 37, acted as a poseur buyer in a buy-bust operation targeting two drug suspects in Rodriguez, Rizal on Saturday, but one of the suspects opened fire upon recognizing him as a lawman. He died of a gunshot wound on his neck.
He left behind a wife and two children aged 12 and seven.
“But before he fell, Sgt. Cabigao did what he was trained to do — to die with honor and dignity of having accomplished the mission of neutralizing the two drug personalities who were the targets of the operation,” Albayalde said.
He said Cabigao will be given awards and recognition “befitting his gallantry in the line of duty.”
The three-year-old daughter of Renato “Kato” Dolorfina, one of the subjects of the bust, also died with a gunshot wound on her head while being treated at a hospital. Police said her father used her as a human shield during the shootout.
READ: 3-yr-old girl hit in drug buy-bust crossfire dies
The two suspects also died during the encounter.
Despite the deaths of suspects in anti-drug operations, Albayalde emphasized that the “paramount objective of any police intervention is to effect the arrest of the offender.”
“And this is precisely the orientation of every police operation that resulted in the arrest of 240,565 drug suspects in 153,276 separate anti-drug operations,” he said.
Data from the PNP as of May 2019 shows 144 police officers have also sustained injuries while conducting drug stings since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office.
A total of 6,600 drug suspects were killed during the same period. (Editor: Eden Estopace)
READ: 6,600 killed in war vs drugs from July 2016 to May 2019 — PNP