Kill list: 2,500 dead

THE NUMBER of persons killed in connection with the government war on illegal drugs has breached the 2,500 mark in just two months of the Duterte administration.

The Philippine National Police on Tuesday said 1,033 drug suspects were killed, while 1,405 drug-related deaths from July 1 to Sept. 6 were under investigation.

A total of 15,193 individuals were arrested in 15,905 operations conducted under the PNP’s Oplan “Double Barrel” antidrug campaign.

PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa launched Double Barrel to carry out President Duterte’s promise to end the drug menace in three to six months. The campaign has focused on both high-value targets and street-level suspects, thus the name “double barrel.”

A total of 709,866 houses were visited by policemen under Project Tokhang, where the police knock on doors of suspected drug users and pushers to warn them of consequence of their actions. The number that surrendered reached 687,953. Of these, 48,5634 were pushers and 639,319 were users.

The police also filed drug cases against 281 persons.