GENERAL SANTOS CITY –– The number of drug suspects slain during police operations in the South Cotabato, Cotabato City, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City (Soccsksargen) region markedly decreased by 70 percent last year compared to 2018, the regional police here reported.
Lt. Col. Lino Capellan, regional police spokesperson, said only 46 drug suspects were killed during police operations in 2019 compared to 154 slain in the previous year.
He attributed the decline to the “reduced number of drug
personalities who resisted arrest, or those who engaged police in a shootout.”
He also said the decline in number could indicate that “fewer people engaged in illegal drugs” amid the government’s aggressive anti-drug campaign.
He claimed, however, that many of the 46 persons killed “resisted arrest.”
“No rubout, no extra-judicial killing, these were all legitimate law enforcement operations,” Capellan said on the number of people killed during police raids.
He said police seized about P60.1 million worth of illegal drugs during the 1,528 operations conducted for the period.
A total of 7,887.26 grams of shabu and 5,615.05 grams of marijuana were recovered.
Brig. Gen. Alfred Corpus, PRO-12 regional director, also reported at least 60 illegal firearms and 17 explosives confiscated by the police last year.
Capellan also noted a 22-percent drop in the number of drug
personalities the police arrested during the period.
A total of 1,576 drug personalities were arrested in 2019 and
were eventually charged. He claimed that of those arrested, 1,141 were drug peddlers and 435 were users.