By Earl Jed Roque – PNA
MANILA — More than 160,000 drug personalities have been arrested since the start of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs, data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) showed.
The total count of drug personalities arrested since the start of Duterte’s term up to November 30, 2018 is at 164,265.
Official records also showed that only 51 drug personalities died in the conduct of anti-illegal drug operations in November while 2,681 have been arrested.
In the Real Numbers press briefing Tuesday, PDEA Spokesperson Derrick Carreon addressed criticisms from groups questioning the accuracy of the numbers they have presented and said their data have undergone a rigid process of data collation before being released.
“Ito po pinaninindigan namin. Ito ay masusing pinag-aralan at tinignan. Ito po ang tunay na pigura. Sanay na po kami na maraming naglalabas diyan ng kaliwa’t-kanang iba-ibang numero, hindi po natin alam kung saan nanggagaling itong mga numero nila (We stand by these numbers. These were closely studied. These are the real figures. We’re used to those groups releasing different figures left and right, we do not know where these numbers come from),” Carreon said.
Carreon added that 159 of the arrested drug personalities were foreign nationals — 48 were part of Chinese drug syndicates while 12 were Americans, 25 were Taiwanese, and 74 belonged to other nationalities.
PDEA records said some PHP128.96 million worth of illegal drugs and equipment were seized in November alone. However, the figure was PHP25.19 billion for illegal drugs and equipment seized since July 2016 or the start of Duterte’s term.
