Twenty suspected drug pushers died in shootouts with elements of the Manila Police District in the first week of July, Mayor Joseph Estrada said on Friday.
Estrada also boasted of the decline in the city’s crime rate in the past six months.
“This is the end result of our full support to the city’s police force,” Estrada said.
“Their morale is high, they have everything they need—equipment, supplies, and even allowances. We can now say that it’s safer to live here in Manila,” he added.
MPD Director Joel Coronel said the slain “high value” pushers were killed in “armed encounters with anti-drug police operatives” throughout the city between July 1 and 10.
Relatedly, Coronel said some 3,160 alleged “users” and 595 “pushers” gave themselves up to the MPD.
He said the 4,150-strong MPD pushed up its crime solution efficiency rate of 57.9 percent from January 1 to June 30, from 38.05 percent in 2014 to 2015 and 24.55 percent in 2013 to 2014.
Since he became mayor in 2013, Estrada has allotted P1.9 billion for Manila’s crime prevention program, including P136 million in back allowances of MPD members and the purchase of 41 new mobile patrol cars and 110 electric personal transporters.
A Palace official has described the Duterte administration’s war against illegal drugs a success, with tens of thousands of drug suspects surrendering to the authorities.
“We have to seize the momentum,” Presidential Communications Office [PCO] Secretary Martin Andanar said.
Andanar said that since the government started its intensified campaign against illegal drugs, almost 60,000 drug users and pushers have turned themselves in.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who won by a big margin in the May 9 elections, vowed to wage a “bloody war” against drugs as well as criminality and corruption.
“The voluntary surrender of thousands of self-confessed users and pushers reaffirms our people’s renewed faith and trust in authorities. In his resolute campaign against drugs, the President has even made it possible to unite the populace in combating the illegal drug trade,” said Andanar.
Andanar stressed, however, that government is against any form of extra-judicial killing.
Since May, more than 200 suspects have been killed “while fighting cops” in legitimate buy-bust operations, according to police estimates and various news reports. Dozens have been killed by unidentified assailants.
“The PNP (Philippine National Police) continues to investigate situations involving vigilante killings and operational aspects where deaths are reported,” Andanar added.
He disclosed that plans to build rehabilitation centers nationwide are being undertaken.
In Central Luzon, Andanar said, police authorities are eyeing Subic and Clark to house drug dependents.
“While the campaign against drugs is far from perfect, a generation of Filipinos have been saved from this scourge of society and destroyer of lives. Many communities are now relatively drug-free with record-high number of people giving up to authorities, choosing quieter and healthier lives,” he concluded.