The number of people killed since President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown on illegal drugs since July 1 has surpassed 3,500 with more than half of the casualties coming from vigilantes, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Thursday.

Since July 1 a total of 1,276 drug suspects were killed in 20,527 police operations, the PNP said.

Thirteen police and three soldiers were killed in the anti-drug operations.

Meanwhile, a total of 2,233 people were slain by vigilantes. But, police have pointed out these cases are being investigated if these are all drug related.

Police arrested 19,907 people across the country while 725,791 suspected users and pushers surrendered.

PNP chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said Thursday they still have a long way to go in accounting for the 1.8 million drug personalities based on records from the Dangerous Drugs Board.

The price of shabu have gone up by 300 percent as demand has gone down by 70 to 80 percent according to Dela Rosa

"We have been effective on the demand side," Dela Rosa in a news briefing on Thursday.

Dela Rosa warned that policemen who were allegedly involved in illegal drugs would be a subject of "tok-bang."

Dela Rosa, in jest, said after knocking on the door of the houses of policemen allegedly involved in the drug trade, they would be gunned down or "tok-bang," not "tokhang," which is the legitimate program of the PNP now to those who are suspected drug users.

Duterte has said 11,000 policemen were allegedly involved in illegal drugs.

Dela Rosa said the government was on its second phase in the war against illegal drugs. Under this phase, he said the PNP would focus on high-value targets. Emmanuel Tupas, Celerina Monte