While Holy Week is typically a solemn period for the Philippines, it was business as usual for the Philippine National Police which conducted over 500 anti-drug operations during the 4-day break.
According to a report in ABS-CBN News, over 811 were arrested and seven were killed in the operations which took place from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday.
Four of those killed were in Central Luzon, one in southern Luzon, and two in Mindanao.
According to police data, over 4,000 have been killed in the war on drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016. Human rights organizations put this number closer to 13,000, although the government disputes these figures.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) said it would begin a probe into the Philippines’ war on drugs last February, prompting Duterte to announce that the Philippines would pull out of the ICC’s Rome Statute.
Last month, 13 people were also killed during anti-drug operations in Bulacan, a province north of Metro Manila.
