MANILA: Police in the Philippine capital shot dead 25 drug suspects in another round of anti-drug raids, authorities said Thursday (Aug 17), as they followed President Rodrigo Duterte's call for dozens of deaths a day.

The killings, carried out in Manila from Wednesday to Thursday morning, came after police shot dead 32 drug suspects in the province neighbouring the capital early in the week in what was billed as a "shock and awe" operation against drug traffickers.

Manila police spokesman Senior Superintendent Erwin Margarejo said the 25 were killed in 18 various operations against drug suspects.

"It is a simultaneous police operation. All the units and stations of MPD (Manila police district) conducted their own operations," Margarejo told AFP.

Duterte on Wednesday praised the killings of the 32 suspects in Bulacan province, describing the operations as "good".

"If we could kill another 32 everyday, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country," Duterte said.

However national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos insisted that officers in Bulacan and Manila had killed only in self-defence.

"Can you blame the police now when the initial action is perpetrated by the suspect?" he said.

Duterte easily won last year's presidential election largely on a vow to kill tens of thousands of drug traffickers and addicts, which he said was necessary to stop the country's slide to narco-state status.

Police have killed more than 3,500 people in drug raids since Duterte came to office in the middle of last year, according to government data.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to the police.

He has also repeatedly assured policemen that he will protect them if they are charged for killing drug suspects as part of his campaign.

Rights groups have warned Duterte, who has said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts, may be orchestrating a crime against humanity.

Wilnor Papa, Philippine human rights officer of Amnesty International, said the apparent uptick in killings this week appeared to be because of Duterte's calls for more deaths.

"Because of the remarks of the president, these kind of killings will go on," Papa told AFP.</s>Manila: Police in the Philippine capital shot dead 25 drug suspects in another round of anti-drug raids, authorities said Thursday, as they followed President Rodrigo Duterte`s call for dozens of deaths a day.

The killings, carried out in Manila from Wednesday to Thursday morning, came after police shot dead 32 drug suspects in the province neighbouring the capital early in the week in what was billed as a "shock and awe" operation against drug traffickers.

Manila police spokesman Senior Superintendent Erwin Margarejo said the 25 were killed in 18 various operations against drug suspects.

"It is a simultaneous police operation. All the units and stations of MPD (Manila police district) conducted their own operations," Margarejo told AFP.

Duterte on Wednesday praised the killings of the 32 suspects in Bulacan province, describing the operations as "good".

"If we could kill another 32 everyday, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country," Duterte said.

However national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos insisted that officers in Bulacan and Manila had killed only in self-defence.

"Can you blame the police now when the initial action is perpetrated by the suspect?" he said.

Duterte easily won last year`s presidential election largely on a vow to kill tens of thousands of drug traffickers and addicts, which he said was necessary to stop the country`s slide to narco-state status.

Police have killed more than 3,500 people in drug raids since Duterte came to office in the middle of last year, according to government data.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to the police.

He has also repeatedly assured policemen that he will protect them if they are charged for killing drug suspects as part of his campaign.

Rights groups have warned Duterte, who has said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts, may be orchestrating a crime against humanity.

Wilnor Papa, Philippine human rights officer of Amnesty International, said the apparent uptick in killings this week appeared to be because of Duterte`s calls for more deaths.

"Because of the remarks of the president, these kind of killings will go on," Papa told AFP.</s>Philippine police killed 32 people in dozens of anti-drug operations in a province north of the capital of Manila in the single deadliest day of President Rodrigo Duterte's unrelenting war on drugs.

About 109 petty criminals, including street-level drug peddlers, were arrested and dozens of guns seized in police operations across Bulacan province from Monday night until Tuesday afternoon, said provincial police Chief Romeo Caramat.

"We have conducted 'onetime, big-time' operations in the past, so far, the number of casualties and deaths, this is the highest," Caramat told a news conference.

He defended police action and said the deaths were during shootouts, not executions as activists have often alleged.

"There are some sectors that will not believe us, but, we are open for any investigation. All we can say is that we don't have any control of the situation. As much as possible, we don't want this bloody encounter."
• CBC IN MANILA l Jailed senator De Lima 'won't be quiet' about Duterte

Thousands of people have been killed in the anti-drugs campaign, Duterte's signature policy, since it was launched on June 30 last year. Most were users and small-time dealers from poor neighbourhoods.

The intensity of the crackdown has alarmed the international community, and activists and human rights groups say police have been executing suspects and planting drugs and guns at crime scenes.

Police and the government officials reject that. Police also deny involvement in thousands of murders by mysterious gunmen, blaming them on gang turf wars, drug dealers silencing informants, or vigilantes targeting drug users.

"There were 32 killed in Bulacan in a massive raid, that's good," Duterte said in a speech. "Let's kill another 32 every day. Maybe we can reduce what ails this country."

Police conducted 49 sting drug operations in Bulacan that resulted in about 20 armed encounters, Caramat said. Ten other gunfights ensued when police tried to serve arrest warrants to suspects who fought back. He said 93 of those held were wanted for other crimes, as well as drugs offences.

Bulacan has been a major target in the drugs war, with some 425 people killed and 4,000 offenders arrested, according to Caramat, making it the second-biggest hot spot in the crackdown outside of the Manila area.

Political opponents of Duterte have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing the president and top aides of crimes against humanity, arguing they failed to address allegations of widespread police abuses that have been brought to their attention.

Duterte has welcomed the ICC complaint, and said he was willing to rot in jail to protect Filipinos.

He has often complained about human rights groups criticizing and undermining his campaign and on Wednesday said he would instead investigate them, or worse.

"If they are obstructing justice, shoot them," he said.</s>MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' police chief on Friday stood by anti-narcotics officers and rejected a Reuters investigation that pointed to a pattern of police sending corpses of drug suspects to hospitals to destroy crime scene evidence and hide executions.

President Rodrigo Duterte took office in the Philippines a year ago, launching a bloody war on drugs that has killed thousands of Filipinos.

In a television interview to mark the anniversary, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald dela Rosa appeared irritated by questions about the Reuters report, published on Thursday, and said police carrying out anti-drugs operations had a duty to save lives, even when encountering violent resistance.

He said police were not medically qualified to determine whether a victim was dead or alive and sent victims to hospital as part of operational procedure.

"What do you want, we let the wounded die? You don't want us to rescue his life?" he told news channel ANC.

The Reuters investigation analyzed crime data from two of Metro Manila's five police districts and included accounts of doctors, witnesses, law enforcement officials and victims' families. [nL8N1JQ2NQ]

It showed a pattern of police sending dead bodies to hospitals, preventing thorough crime scene investigations from taking place after the killing of drug suspects. [nL8N1JQ2NQ]

Dela Rosa said Reuters, which has produced a series of in-depth reports into the war on drugs that have questioned official accounts, was "looking for faults" in the police.

"PNP is damned if you do, damned if you don't. Reuters really is looking for faults in us. We have to stand by our police operational procedure that in case of an encounter, if a person is not yet declared dead by the physician, you need to bring him to the hospital."

He added: "Who are the policemen to say they are dead? They are not medical practitioners. If we did not bring them to the hospitals, the relatives might sue us."

A spokeswoman for Reuters said the news agency stood by its reporting.

Duterte's bloody campaign has been condemned by human rights groups and alarmed Western countries due to the high death toll and allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings and cover-ups by police. The PNP rejects those allegations.

Reuters looked at police reports covering the first eight months of the drug war, which showed that in Quezon City Police District and neighboring Manila Police District, 301 victims were sent to hospital after police anti-drug operations. Only two survived and the rest were dead on arrival.

In nearly all cases where drug suspects have died during police operations in the year-long crackdown, the official accounts say police fired in self defense. Police say they do not shoot to kill.

Activists, however, say the circumstances behind many of the killings in police sting operations point to executions. A Reuters investigation last year found that when police opened fire in anti-drug operations, they killed 97 percent of people they shot.

The data analyzed in the latest Reuters investigation shows a sharp increase in the number of drug suspects declared dead on arrival in the Quezon City and Manila districts each month.

There were 10 cases when the drug war started a year ago in July 2016, or 13 percent of police drug shooting deaths. By January 2017, the tally rose to 51 cases, or 85 percent, at a time when criticism of Duterte's campaign intensified.

A police commander who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said the increase was no coincidence and police were

trying to prevent crime scene investigations and media attention that might show they were executing suspects.

Human rights groups say the anti-drugs crackdown, the signature policy of the populist Duterte, has been disastrous and has almost entirely targeted the poor, with most of those killed or arrested drug users and small-time dealers, with narcotics kingpins largely untouched.

Dela Rosa said police should not be disparaged for trying to save victims and the removal of bodies from a crime scene did not mean a proper investigation could not be carried out.

"Do not put malice in what the police does," he said. "The

crime scene is there even without the dead body."</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine police say they have killed at least 26 more drug offenders in overnight gunbattles in the capital, bringing the death toll in the president's renewed crackdown to 58 in the last three days.

President Rodrigo Duterte expressed his satisfaction with the new spike in drug killings and reassured law enforcers Thursday he would ensure they will not rot in jail if they get entangled in lawsuits.

Manila police Chief Superintendent Joel Napoleon Coronel says 26 drug suspects were killed and more than 70 others arrested across the congested city in overnight police assaults.

The deaths followed the killings of 32 suspects in separate police anti-drug raids Tuesday in Bulacan province north of Manila under Duterte's notoriously bloody campaign that has horrified rights groups.</s>MANILA, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Twenty-five criminals were killed overnight in the Philippine capital Manila, police said on Thursday, including 14 in anti-drug operations in a second night of heavy bloodshed this week as a fierce war on drugs intensifies.

The killings across Manila followed 32 deaths in near-simultaneous police operations on Monday night through to Tuesday in Bulacan province, marking the deadliest period of a controversial crackdown by President Rodrigo Duterte that has killed thousands of Filipinos.

Joel Napoleon Coronel, director of Manila Police District, told reporters the 14 were killed in sting operations and 11 other deaths were robbers who were also involved in narcotics.

The identity of the killers of the 11 people were not known and the incidents were under investigation, police reports said. (Reporting by Dondi Tawatao; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Kim Coghill)</s>MANILA
• Philippine police have killed 32 people in dozens of anti-drug operations in a province north of Manila, in the single deadliest day of President Rodrigo Duterte's unrelenting war on drugs.

About 109 petty criminals, including street-level drug peddlers, were arrested and dozens of guns seized in police operations across Bulacan province from Monday night until Tuesday afternoon, said provincial police chief Romeo Caramat.

"We have conducted 'one-time, big-time' operations in the past; so far, the number of casualties and deaths - this is the highest," Mr Caramat told a news conference.

He defended the police action and said the deaths were during shootouts, and were not executions, as activists have often alleged. "There are some sectors that will not believe us, but we are open for any investigation.

"All we can say is that we don't have any control of the situation. As much as possible, we don't want this bloody encounter."

Thousands of people have been killed in the anti-drugs campaign, Mr Duterte's signature policy, since it was launched on June 30 last year, most of them users and small-time dealers from poor neighbourhoods.

The intensity of the crackdown has alarmed the international community, and activists and human rights groups say police have been executing suspects and planting drugs and guns at crime scenes. Philippine police and government officials reject that.

The police also deny involvement in thousands of murders by mysterious gunmen, blaming them on gang turf wars, drug dealers silencing informants, or vigilantes targeting drug users.

"There were 32 killed in Bulacan in a massive raid, that's good," Mr Duterte said in a speech. "Let's kill another 32 every day. Maybe we can reduce what ails this country."

Police conducted 49 sting drug operations in Bulacan that resulted in about 20 armed encounters, Mr Caramat said. Ten other gunfights ensued when police tried to serve arrest warrants on suspects who fought back.

He said 93 of those held were wanted for other crimes, as well as drug offences.

Bulacan has been a major target in the drugs war, with some 425 people killed and 4,000 offenders arrested, according to Mr Caramat, making it the second-biggest hot spot in the crackdown outside of the Manila area.

Political opponents of Mr Duterte have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing him and top aides of crimes against humanity, arguing they failed to address allegations of widespread police abuses that have been brought to their attention.

Mr Duterte has welcomed the ICC complaint, and said he was willing to rot in jail to protect Filipinos.</s>A Filipino relative weeps near the body of a man who was killed following a police operation against illegal drugs in Manila. (AAP)

Police in the Philippine capital shot dead 25 drug suspects in another round of anti-drug raids, authorities said Thursday, as they followed President Rodrigo Duterte's call for dozens of deaths a day.

The killings, carried out in Manila from Wednesday to Thursday morning, came after police shot dead 32 drug suspects in the province neighbouring the capital early in the week in what was billed as a "shock and awe" operation against drug traffickers.

Manila police spokesman Senior Superintendent Erwin Margarejo said the 25 were killed in 18 various operations against drug suspects.

"It is a simultaneous police operation. All the units and stations of MPD (Manila police district) conducted their own operations," Margarejo told AFP.

Duterte on Wednesday praised the killings of the 32 suspects in Bulacan province, describing the operations as "good".

"If we could kill another 32 everyday, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country," Duterte said.

However national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos insisted that officers in Bulacan and Manila had killed only in self-defence.

"Can you blame the police now when the initial action is perpetrated by the suspect?" he said.

Duterte easily won last year's presidential election largely on a vow to kill tens of thousands of drug traffickers and addicts, which he said was necessary to stop the country's slide to narco-state status.

Police have killed more than 3,500 people in drug raids since Duterte came to office in the middle of last year, according to government data.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to the police.

He has also repeatedly assured policemen that he will protect them if they are charged for killing drug suspects as part of his campaign.

Rights groups have warned Duterte, who has said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts, may be orchestrating a crime against humanity.

Wilnor Papa, Philippine human rights officer of Amnesty International, said the apparent uptick in killings this week appeared to be because of Duterte's calls for more deaths.

"Because of the remarks of the president, these kind of killings will go on," Papa told AFP.</s>Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista challenges Congress to create an autonomous National Capital Region 'now' if the bid for federalism encounters obstacles

MANILA, Philippines – Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Thursday, August 17, called for the creation of a unified “Metro Manila state," as he pushed for autonomy and independence for the National Capital Region.

“Ang Metro Manila ay dapat maging independent state na rin. Ang Metro Manila ay [dapat] magkaroon na rin ng autonomous region (Metro Manila should be an independent state too. Metro Manila should be an autonomous region),” Bautista said during the opening of the new Cubao Police Station inside Camp Panopio, Quezon City.

Bautista reasoned that uniting the region would streamline managing its public institutions. Among those specified by Bautista were airports, health centers, and state-run universities and colleges.

"Kung 'di kayang aprubahan ang federalism, chinachallenge natin ang Kongreso, both ang House at Senate, na gawin na nating estado, ngayon pa lang, ang kabuuan ng Kalakhang Maynila (If federalism will not be approved, we are challenging Congress, both the House and the Senate, to make all of Metro Manila into a state now),” Bautista said.

He said the independence he was proposing would be similar to that of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

While the call was a move for independence, the Quezon City mayor said he remained “supportive” of the national government, specifically, President Rodrigo Duterte, a staunch advocate of federalism.

Bautista said his proposal for autonomy was justified because Metro Manila contributes to a third of the national budget or at least a trillion pesos.

This is not the first attempt to unite the nation’s most developed region.

The NCR was created by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 824, which recognized the region as a legal entity responding to the region’s rapid economic and population growth.

To provide unity without usurping the autonomy of the local government units (LGUs), the Metro Manila Council (MMC), the precursor of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), was created.

Still, it was and remains to be a special development and administrative region subject to direct supervision of the President.

However, the MMDA could not completely enforce its orders as some city councils see these as an invasion of their legislative powers.

Two bills seeking to strengthen the MMDA have been filed at the House of Representatives. – Rappler.com</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police killed at least 26 more drug and crime suspects in overnight gunbattles in the capital, bringing to 58 the death toll in a renewed bloody crackdown in the last three days that received praises from the president.

President Rodrigo Duterte expressed his satisfaction with the new spike in drug killings and reassured law enforcers Thursday they will not rot in jail if they get entangled in lawsuits.

“If the police and the military get into trouble in connection with the performance of duty, you can expect, I really won’t agree for you to be jailed,” Duterte said to applause from police officers.

While he acknowledged it may be tough for him to bring the drug menace under control during the rest of his six-year term, Duterte said the deadly crackdown would continue without letup. He announced rewards of 2 million pesos ($40,000) for each drug-linked police officer who would be killed.

“You policemen who are into drugs … the bounty I’m offering for your head is 2 million. No questions asked. I will not ask who killed you,” Duterte told police officers in southern Ozamiz city. “I want you … dead.”

Twenty-six drug and crime suspects were killed and more than 100 others arrested across the congested city in overnight police assaults, said Manila police Chief Superintendent Joel Napoleon Coronel. Officials played down suspicions the slain suspects were victims of extrajudicial killings.

The deaths followed the killings of 32 suspects in separate police anti-drug raids Tuesday in Bulacan province north of Manila. The police operations took place under Duterte’s notoriously bloody campaign that has horrified rights groups and sparked a complaint of mass murder against Duterte before the International Criminal Court. The complaint is pending.

Police records show that since the nationwide crackdown started, more than 3,200 alleged drug offenders have been killed in gunbattles with law enforcers. More than 2,000 others died in drug-related killings, including attacks by motorcycle-riding masked gunmen and other assaults.

Human rights groups report a higher toll and demand an independent investigation into Duterte’s possible role in the violence.

On Thursday, Duterte traveled under heavy security to congratulate officers in Ozamiz, where police fatally shot 15 people, including the city mayor, Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., who was among the politicians Duterte publicly linked to illegal drugs last year.

Parojinog’s wife and followers were killed in the July 30 fight that police said erupted when the mayor’s men opened fire as they approached to search their houses. The mayor’s daughter, who is the vice mayor, and several others were arrested. The Parojinogs have long denied allegations of their involvement in illegal drugs and firearms trade and keeping armed followers.

The involvement of politicians, even judges and police, in illegal drugs underscores how the problem has spiraled out of control, Duterte said. “Are we or are we not a narcotic country? Yes we are,” he said.

Duterte also expressed disgust over an unfolding scandal when a huge amount of illegal drugs shipped from China slipped past the country’s ports. Senators are investigating officials of the Bureau of Customs, who Duterte has described as “corrupt to the core.”

“So how can I finish it?” Duterte asked, referring to the drug problem and adding that even the U.S. couldn’t eradicate illegal drugs. “If America can’t do it, much more the Philippines now.”

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At least 25 people are killed and 48 are arrested by the Philippine National Police Manila Police District in consecutive anti-drug operations in Manila within 24 hours.