Chel Diokno says 2017 gov't report pegs drug war deaths at over 20,000

More than 20,000 people were killed in the drug war based on the 2017 year-end accomplishment report of the Duterte administration, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno told a House hearing on Wednesday.

Facing the House Committee on Human Rights, which was investigating the extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration, Diokno said the data was cited in a Supreme Court extended resolution dated April 3, 2018.

"There has been much debate how many persons have been killed in the war on drugs during the last administration. Some of the estimates have been as low as 12,000, while the NGOs (nongovernment organizations) put the figure about at 30,000,” he said.

“There is one number that is unassailable because this comes from the Office of the President and was cited in an extended resolution of the Supreme Court. And that number is 20,322 persons killed in the war on drugs,” Diokno added.

According to Diokno, who attended the hearing as part of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), the 20,322 were reported killed from July 1, 2016 to November 27, 2017.

Of the total number, 3,967 were killed in anti-drugs operations while 16,355 were killed in homicide cases including those involving riding-in-tandem assailants and other suspects.

When asked about the number of deaths in the report, Salvador Medialdea, who served as executive secretary during the Duterte administration, said: "We cannot answer that here."

"I do not know anything about those things, kung ano ang mga verification. That is not part of my territory during my time as executive secretary. I only base it on what are given to me," he said.

"That was given by the PDEA, NBI, PNP and Bureau of Customs. They are in the best position to testify on that," Medialdea added, referring to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police.

Based on government records, around 6,200 drug suspects were killed during the Duterte administration's anti-drug campaign, although human rights groups say up to 30,000 may have been killed.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently probing Duterte’s drug war.

The Philippines, under Rodrigo Duterte, withdrew from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, in 2019 after the tribunal began a probe into his administration's drug war. —KBK, GMA Integrated News