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Agence France-Presse

The Philippine government on Thursday hailed its war on drugs a “success”, as police confirmed killing nearly 200 people in a two-month blitz that has outraged rights groups.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s office released a statement calling for authorities to “seize the momentum” of the anti-drug campaign, which has also led to a spate of vigilante killings that one media group said had claimed roughly 200 more lives.
“Anti-drug campaign a success,” said the title of the statement, released by presidential spokesman Martin Andanar.
“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.”
‘Go ahead and kill drug addicts’: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issues fresh call for vigilante violence
His statement was issued as the national police released figures showing that officers had killed at least 192 people they said were involved in drugs from May 10 to July 10.

Duterte won the May 9 elections in a landslide after campaigning largely on a platform to eradicate crime within six months by unleashing security forces with shoot-to-kill orders.
He vowed on one occasion during the campaign that 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them.
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
Presidential spokesman Martin Andanar
The killings since the election indicate his campaign promises that thousands would die during his six-year term may not have been hyperbole.
Major TV network ABS-CBN said it had recorded 339 “drug fatalities” between May 10 and July 12, based on police and media reports.
The ABS-CBN’s tally includes almost 100 people who were gunned down by unidentified men or simply found murdered.
Dead or alive? Suspected drug dealers killed in Philippines as police look to impress new boss Duterte
Images of people killed in police anti-drug operations, or corpses found with signs saying things like “I am a drug pusher” or “I am a drug addict”, have become daily fare in the local newspapers.
Since assuming the presidency, Duterte has also told police he would protect them from legal consequences if they killed drug dealers. He repeated campaign calls for the public to kill people they believed were criminals.
Andanar said Thursday that the “government is against any form of extra-judicial killings. We do not condone these acts”.
Police were investigating the “vigilante killings” and other suspicious deaths, he said.
Police have insisted they have only killed people after facing threats from suspects. However rights groups have pointed to cases of people being killed inside police stations or after being arrested.
Senator Leila de Lima, a long-time critic of Duterte, filed a resolution on Wednesday seeking a congressional investigation into the killings.
“The fight against crime is apparently becoming a looming state-sanctioned cover for a policy of summary executions and extrajudicial killings,” De Lima wrote in her resolution.


Philippines hails deadly drugs war a ‘success’ after two-month blitz that saw 200 killed

Philippine National Police officials holding packs of illegal drugs during destruction ceremony of seized illegal drugs at a thermal decomposer facility in Trece Martirez City, Cavite province, Philippines. Photo: EPA

epa05424352 A handout picture dated and released on 14 July 2016 by the Philippine National Police Public Information Office (PNP-PIO) shows different boxes illegal drugs during destruction ceremony of seized illegal drugs at a thermal decomposer facility in Trece Martirez City, Cavite province, Philippines. Close to 60,000 drug dependents nationwide have surrendered since the Duterte administration began its intensified campaign against illegal drugs, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Martin Andanar said. According to local news reports, at least 43 alleged drug traffickers have been neutralized and 300 kilos of shabu, a highly addictive and harmful methamphetamine whose use is widespread in the Philippines, has been confiscated. EPA/PNP-PIO/HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

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Police have insisted they have only killed people after facing threats from suspects but human rights groups have pointed to cases of people being killed inside police stations or after being arrested
