The Philippine National Police (PNP) has recorded more than 4,000 deaths died during the anti-illegal drug operations done since the start of the Duterte administration in July 2016.

PNP statistics released Monday showed a total of 4,251 drug suspects were killed during operations from July 1, 2016 up to April 30, 2018.

It also shows during the same period a total of 142,069 drug suspects were arrested during the 98,799 anti-illegal drug operations nationwide.

During these anti-illegal drug operations the PNP also seized a total of 2,676.60 kilos of shabu with a total street value of 13.81 billion pesos.

In an interview in Camp Crame, PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde admitted that murder and killings increased in the national police's first few months of implementation of the anti-illegal drugs campaign.

“We admit that during the first six months of our war on drugs it ( killings) increased because there were groups who took advantage of our war on drugs, especially when I was the regional director of the NCRPO we saw that there were groups that took advantage of the war on drugs,” he said.

“There are NGOs, civilian volunteers. Remember in the case in the city of Manila we caught Centennial Group of the Philippines and there were AWOL policemen involved. We also apprehended active police members,” he added.

But Albayalde also emphasized the decrease on recorded crimes before he became the PNP chief.

“We saw the decrease of the murder and homicide cases related to illegal drugs, In NCR before I left the crimes against properties has drop to more than 60 percent it falls to almost 70 percent in NCR before I left particularly on robbery holdup it drops to 60 or 69 percent, the robbery holdup incidents in Metro Manila before,” he said.

The PNP said based on their record 504 of the arrested drug suspects were government workers and it includes 217 elected officials, 239 government employees and 48 uniformed personnel.

PNP data also shows a total of 302 uniformed and eight non-uniformed personnel were tested positive for illegal drug use and 265 were dismissed from service. Robina Asido/DMS