PNP Central Luzon lists 47 dead in drug raids

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Thirty days of antinarcotics operations in Central Luzon in September led to the arrest of 1,146 suspected drug pushers and users as well as 47 deaths in police operations and 30 homicides under investigation (HUIs), according to the regional police here.

The slain suspects engaged police in gunfights as they resisted arrest, police said. The HUIs involved those that were not necessarily drug-related, according to Supt. Fe Greñas, chief of the regional police public information office.

The Commission on Human Rights in the region has received or pursued about 20 cases of apparent summary killings since last year, all of which were being investigated. —TONETTE OREJAS