Thirteen people were killed in anti-drug operations last night in Bulacan, police officials told reporters earlier today.
According to a report in Reuters, police in Bulacan ran about 60 drug “buy-bust” or sting operations in nine towns.
This is the same province where over 30 were killed in drug busts in a single night last August. Five were killed in a crackdown in January, and another 10 in February.
Over 100 were arrested in yesterday’s operation.
According to official numbers, over 4,000 have been killed in the war on drugs, a cornerstone policy of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Human rights organizations put that number at over 13,000, although this figure is disputed by the government.
In October 2017, Duterte ordered the police to stay out of drug operations and for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to take the lead, but he eventually put the police back to the forefront in December.
While the government’s tokhang (knock and plead) operations — where police knock on doors and ask drug suspects to surrender — were ordered to only happen during business hours, sting operations are still permitted at any time.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into Duterte’s drug war in February.
In response to this, Duterte said last Wednesday that he would withdraw from the ICC treaty.
